System flaws exposed in Jeju disappearance case prompt push for dual verification before missing-person cases are closed

[Financial News] In connection with the disappearance case of a woman in her 30s in Jeju, criticism is mounting that police missed the "golden time" for searching for the missing person after flaws in the response system were exposed. To prevent a repeat, the police are strengthening the system by introducing a manager review process before a missing-person case can be closed in the computer system.
According to Financial News on the 23rd, the National Police Agency is currently working to improve the Missing Children and Others Profiling System. The key change is to introduce a "dual-check" procedure, under which a team leader or section chief reviews the details entered and the reason for closing the case before giving final approval when an investigator requests that a missing-person case be closed in the system.
The Missing Children and Others Profiling System is an internal police database that stores information on missing children, runaways and related cases, including their status and personal data, to support tracking and locating missing persons. When a missing-person report is filed, the system is used to compare and search against previously accumulated data.
However, unlike the Korea Information System of Criminal Justice Services (KICS), which handles cases through approval or authorization from superiors, this system operates as a support tool that records and manages the progress and response measures of missing-person cases. As a result, while investigators must separately report to a team leader or section chief when closing a case, the system itself allows the investigator to process a missing-person cancellation directly without a superior's approval.
Police believe this structure has limits when it comes to filtering out improper case closures, so they have decided to add a manager verification step at the missing-person cancellation stage. Under the new process, when an investigator requests a cancellation in the system, a manager such as a team leader or section chief must check again whether the reason for closure and the entered information match the actual report before approving the final cancellation. The aim is to close the gap between internal reporting and review procedures and the computer-based cancellation process, thereby preventing wrongful case closures.
Police began moving to improve the system after flaws in the current management framework were exposed during the response to the recent disappearance case of a woman in her 30s in Jeju. Jang Mi-ran, 37, left her home in Hallim-eup, Jeju-si, sometime between the late afternoon of May 12 and the early morning of May 13, and then lost contact. In mid-May, her family filed a missing-person report with police, saying that Jang had not returned home.
However, it was revealed that an officer identified as A, who was on night duty at the time, reported to his superior that "the reported person had been contacted" and then closed the case on his own. Officer A claims that he closed the case after making contact with Jang, but neither Jang's call records nor the police station's internal investigation found any record of a phone call between the two. There were also signs that data related to Jang had been deleted from the missing-person profiling system.
As a result, criticism has emerged that flaws in the police system and an inadequate initial response caused authorities to miss the "golden time" for finding the missing person. In missing-person cases, securing clues about the person's movements in the early stages is crucial, but the case was closed immediately after the report was filed, wasting valuable time needed for the search.
Using this case as a turning point, police plan to quickly improve the relevant system first so that similar incidents do not happen again. A National Police Agency official said, "We are pushing ahead as quickly as possible, with the goal of completing the improvements by mid-September," adding, "Through the system upgrade, we will make sure the handling process for missing-person cases is checked more carefully once again."
[email protected] Jang Yu-ha Reporter