Police move to require supervisor approval to close missing persons cases

Korea's police force is scrambling to ensure that no missing persons case goes unchecked after a rogue officer secretly falsified the records and left the family waiting for months. 

The National Police Agency will start implementing a two-stage review that only permits missing persons cases to be closed with a supervisor's approval, while the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency will review all 90,000 missing persons cases filed over the last three years.

With the national agency's new system, officers now must file a written report to their supervisor or chief, who reviews the grounds for closing the case and makes the final decision. 

The current missing persons profiling system allows the officer handling a report to mark it resolved without a supervisor's approval, unlike the Korea Information System of Criminal Justice Services.

It was that very gap in the system that led to the mishandling of the Jang Mi-ran disappearance case in Jeju. Jang was reported missing in May, but the officer had allegedly falsely reported that he spoke to Jang, entered her as dead in the system and then closed the case. 

Investigators later found that the same officer had also reportedly falsely closed another missing persons report filed in July by recording that he had contacted the missing man when he had not.

Seoul police also opened a broad review of previously closed missing persons reports after the Jeju case came to light.

Seoul police are re-examining about 92,800 child and adult missing persons reports that were filed since Jan. 1, 2024 and later closed, according to Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Park Jeong-bo.

Officers will conduct the review through the end of November, focusing on cases closed without meeting the missing person or using an equivalent check, such as a video call or confirmation through the person's family.

Seoul police have required officers since November 2024 to physically confirm a missing person's safety before closing a case.

"With adult missing persons reports, there is a tendency to assume the person simply left home, and we let our guard down," Park said. "We will substantially strengthen our systems and field oversight so that no one is harmed by lax police work."

Also on Monday, authorities found a body believed to be Jang during a search in Hallim-eup and are working to confirm the identity. Prosecutors requested a detention warrant for the officer Monday on suspicion of dereliction of duty and falsifying and using falsified public electronic records after police applied for one.

The officer was released later in the afternoon after the Jeju District Court ruled that his emergency arrest had been unlawful because police knew his whereabouts and had time to obtain an arrest warrant. A separate hearing on the detention warrant is expected to take place on Tuesday.

BY KO SEUNG-PYO [[email protected]]