Police cannot close a missing-person case without direct confirmation... 310,000 cases to be reviewed

[Financial News] Police will conduct a full review of about 310,000 missing-person cases closed over the past three years, following the false closure of a long-term missing-person case in Jeju. As a rule, so-called "non-face-to-face closures" — in which a case is closed after confirming the missing person's safety by phone or other remote means — will be banned. A new approval process for supervisors will also be introduced.
According to police and other sources on the 26th, the National Police Agency has prepared a "reform plan for the operation of missing-person investigation teams" and reported it to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS).
By November, police plan to reexamine the handling of about 310,000 missing-person cases closed over the past three years. In particular, they will select cases with a relatively high risk of false closure, such as those closed without meeting the missing person in person, and check whether the person was actually safe and whether there were any problems in the handling process.
If signs of poor or improper handling are found during the review, police will immediately launch a reinvestigation and report the matter to the Provincial Police Agency. Each Provincial Police Agency will also review closed cases at local police stations every week and order reinvestigations when necessary.
The procedure for closing missing-person cases will also be tightened. The move is intended to prevent cases like the one in Jeju, where an officer closed a case without directly confirming the safety of missing persons, including Jang Mi-ran, and the search was halted.
Going forward, police will in principle prohibit closing a case after confirming a missing person's safety through phone calls or other remote methods. If the missing person is in a place where the assigned officer cannot meet them in person, the police station with jurisdiction over the person's current or presumed location will conduct the face-to-face confirmation and notify the assigned office of the result. If the missing person refuses to meet with police, officers must verify their safety directly with the help of the Administrative Welfare Center, firefighting authorities, or other relevant agencies.
A new step will also require supervisors, including the head of the criminal division, to make the final decision on whether to close a case. The head of the criminal division will review whether the missing person was met in person, how their identity was confirmed, and objective evidence supporting that their safety was secured before approving the closure through the missing persons profiling system.
Police plan to add a supervisor approval function to the missing persons profiling system next month. Until system development is completed, closed cases will be managed through handwritten logs. They are also considering a feature that would automatically notify the reporter by text message and other means at each stage, from case intake to progress and closure.
Routine inspections at front-line police stations will also be strengthened. Every day, police will hold an inspection meeting led by the chief of a police station for all missing-person reports filed the previous day. The chief and the head of the criminal division will personally review whether the missing person was met in person, why non-face-to-face handling was used, and whether safety was confirmed through other means.
Police believe that some stations have continued the practice of closing cases after confirming safety through phone calls or other remote methods. They also identified as a problem the possibility that, due to a high closure rate, some reports may have been judged simply as runaways or people who failed to return home. In fact, the closure rate for cases registered in the missing persons profiling system exceeded 99% every year from 2023 through last year.
Police will also reorganize staffing and shift patterns for missing-person investigations. Of the 148 dedicated missing-person teams nationwide, 111 teams, or 75.0%, have only one officer on night duty. Police said this could limit their ability to respond quickly when multiple reports come in at once.
To address this, police plan to analyze staffing levels and establish a system in which at least two officers work at night and on holidays. They will also push ahead with adjustments to personnel assignments in the Violent Crime Unit and other investigative teams.
Based on the full review and inspection results, police said they will draw up additional follow-up measures if further problems are identified.
[email protected] Kim Ye-ji Reporter