Police move to prevent lone closure of missing-person cases and expand tracking of missing adults

A single police officer will no longer be able to close a missing-person case at will under a system change taking effect September 7. Deleting a case from the police missing-person profiling system will require approval from a criminal division chief.

The measure follows a review meeting held by acting National Police Commissioner Kim Jong-cheol on September 4. Kim had visited Jeju immediately after taking office, following a case in which an officer allegedly fabricated a reason to falsely close a missing-person case. The case’s removal from the system blocked further searches for the missing person.

Police are also considering placing the missing-person system, searches and investigations under the National Office of Investigation. At present, the criminal affairs bureau handles searches and investigations, while the public safety and traffic bureau manages the system and related policy. Critics have said this division has prevented coordinated responses.

“

It is important to identify and improve weaknesses from the perspective of missing people and their families, and to establish a system that checks whether policies are properly implemented in the field.

The police plan to establish a dedicated unit at the metropolitan police agency level to oversee work handled by individual stations. They also intend to increase staffing so that at least two officers handle missing-person duties at night and on holidays. Until additional personnel can be assigned, major-crimes teams will support the work.

Officials are pursuing legislation to permit more active searches for missing adults, who are currently classified legally as runaways and therefore face limits on early location checks. The existing Missing Children Act allows transit-card and location information checks for missing children and people with dementia, but not generally for adults. Four bills have been introduced in the National Assembly to permit location tracking and similar measures for high-risk adults.

Kim said police should identify weaknesses from the perspective of missing people and their families, listen to frontline staff and examine structural problems in how cases are handled.

“

We must listen actively to the views of employees performing these duties in the field, examine structural problems in the work process and develop effective measures on the ground.