Jeju police officer suspected of falsely closing 25 more missing-person cases

A Jeju police officer who allegedly covered up the disappearance cases of a woman in her 30s and a man in his 60s is suspected of falsely closing 25 additional cases.

Jeju police said 10 cases were closed in the 112 emergency system and the missing-person profiling system on the false claim that officers had contacted the missing people. In 15 other cases, the officer allegedly entered reasons such as traffic-accident death or unidentified death before deleting the records. Police suspect that some of those people had not been contacted either.

Investigators reviewed all 298 cases the officer closed after joining the missing-person investigation team at Jeju Western Police Station in March last year. The cases involved 157 adults and 141 children or others. Police said they confirmed that every missing person in the review was safe, but they have not determined why the officer recorded some people as dead instead of closing the cases under the reason “person located.”

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I treated the missing person as an ordinary adult and was careless. I falsely closed the case because unresolved cases meant there was more work to handle and I felt burdened about handing over the case.

The officer told investigators that he treated cases involving ordinary adults casually and falsified closures because unresolved cases created more work and made handovers burdensome. Police attributed the repeated misconduct to accumulated workload, negligence, avoidance and an irresponsible attitude. The officer was questioned 10 times with the involvement of five criminal profilers.

The officer allegedly deleted the record in one case involving a woman in her 30s, which he handled alone at night, but left a record in the case involving the older man because colleagues knew about it. Prosecutors received him after his detention on charges including dereliction of duty, falsifying and using public electronic records, and obstructing official duties through fraudulent means. President Lee Jae Myung said responsibility for the missing-person cases should be clearly assigned and called for a review of police procedures.

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There is great public concern about the Jeju missing-person cases. We must make the responsibility of the final person in charge clear.