A police officer accused of falsely closing the missing-person case of Jang Mi-ran, 37, in Jeju has been indicted while in custody. Police are also expanding their investigation to include the supervisors who oversaw the case at the time.
The Jeju District Prosecutors' Office said on the 18th that it had indicted the officer, a 34-year-old senior patrolman surnamed Boo, on charges of dereliction of duty and of falsifying and using public electronic records. Prosecutors also added charges of using falsified public electronic records, violating the act on promoting the digitization of criminal justice procedures, and drafting and using false official documents. The indictment came 18 days after the officer was referred to prosecutors in custody.
"Criminal Division 1 of the Jeju District Prosecutors' Office assembled a dedicated investigation team of four prosecutors' offices even before the case was referred to us, and after receiving the case from police we conducted a wide-ranging investigation, including supplementary questioning," the office said. "We established that the defendant falsely closed missing-person cases out of concern over the burden of handling them, and that the system for handling missing-person cases functioned poorly — with no supervision by superiors during the closure process and with 'joint reviews' conducted only as a formality in a group chat room."
Prosecutors concluded that the officer falsely closed the cases to avoid the burden of reporting to superiors or handing the cases over to colleagues if they remained open, and out of a vague assumption that adult missing persons were probably alive somewhere. All of the alleged offenses occurred while the officer was working night shifts alone, and no supervision or oversight by superiors took place during that time. The Jeju Provincial Police Agency had stressed that officers should close missing-person cases only after meeting the missing person face to face, but that rule was not followed at the front-line police station.
In addition, if an officer in charge entered the reason for closing a missing-person case as "unnatural death" or "traffic fatality," the entry was immediately deleted from the profiling system, leaving superiors and other team members unaware that the case had even been filed. When closing a case for other reasons, the absence of proper controls meant any officer on the missing-person investigation team could close a case single-handedly without a superior's approval.
Joint reviews meant to assess possible criminal involvement were also not properly conducted. Under the rules, a joint review led by the head of the criminal affairs division must be held for any missing person not found within 12 hours of a report. But at the Jeju Western Police Station's missing-person investigation team, officers on duty merely shared the 112 emergency-call report form for the missing person in a group chat room that included the criminal affairs division head and team members, and no discussion of possible criminal involvement took place.
"We confirmed that the police system for handling missing-person cases has been poorly run overall," the prosecutors' office said. "We will do our utmost in prosecuting the case so that the defendant receives a heavy sentence commensurate with the crimes, and we will also work to ensure that investigative agencies do not bury cases even after the prosecution service is reorganized into the new Public Prosecution Office, which will handle indictments and trials."
The officer is accused of closing the case about two and a half hours after receiving a missing-person report from Jang's boyfriend on May 15, notifying the boyfriend that the officer had "reached Jang, but she does not want her location disclosed." The officer also cleared the case from the police missing-person profiling system the same day. Prosecutors say the officer falsely closed another case in the same manner after receiving a missing-person report on July 2 concerning a man in his 60s identified as A.
Police are widening their inquiry as well. The Jeju Provincial Police Agency said it had opened a pre-charge internal inquiry into a total of eight people, including the former head of the criminal affairs division at Jeju Western Police Station and the leader and members of its missing-person team, on suspicion of dereliction of duty. They came under scrutiny after the police internal affairs unit requested an investigation, and all have been subject to personnel action, including being placed on standby status.
