The police will review approximately 310,000 missing persons cases that were closed in the past three years, following a false closure incident in Jeju. The review is expected to be completed by November.
According to a report by Yonhap News on August 26, the National Police Agency has developed a "missing persons investigation team reform plan." This plan categorizes cases that are likely to have been falsely closed, particularly those closed without direct contact with the missing persons, to reassess the safety of the individuals and the appropriateness of the case handling.
If any cases are found to have been inadequately or improperly handled during the review, immediate re-investigations will be initiated, and the findings will be reported to the provincial police agencies. These agencies will also conduct weekly checks on closed cases from their respective police stations and will order re-investigations if necessary.
To prevent a recurrence of the issue where a police officer in Jeju closed a case without verifying the safety of missing individuals like Jang Mi-ran, the procedures for closing missing persons cases will be strengthened. The police will generally prohibit the practice of closing cases based solely on non-face-to-face verification methods, such as phone calls.
In cases where the missing person is located far away and direct contact is difficult, the police station responsible for the area where the individual is believed to be will conduct the safety verification in person and notify the responsible department.
A new approval process for case closures will also be introduced, requiring the head of the criminal division to review objective data, including whether the missing person was met in person, the verification of their identity, and confirmation of their safety before approving the case closure.
The police plan to add this managerial approval function to their system next month and will manage closed cases through manual records until the system development is complete. They are also considering implementing an automatic notification feature to inform reporters at each stage of case reception, progress, and closure.
Additionally, to enhance routine checks, daily meetings will be held under the supervision of police chiefs to review all missing person reports received the previous day. Police chiefs and criminal division heads will directly assess the appropriateness of case closures based on whether the missing person was met in person, reasons for non-face-to-face processing, and other methods used to confirm safety.
The police will also revise their missing persons investigation personnel and work systems. Currently, 111 out of 148 dedicated missing persons teams (75.0%) have only one officer on duty at night, raising concerns about inadequate responses during peak reporting times. The police will analyze missing persons investigation personnel and establish a system where at least two officers are on duty during nights and holidays, while also adjusting the distribution of personnel in the violent crime and criminal investigation teams. Future improvements will be based on the findings from the comprehensive review and inspections.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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