Police Move to Establish Dedicated Organization to Oversee Metropolitan-Level Missing-Person Investigations; Case Closures to Require Criminal Affairs Chief’s Approval

[Financial News] Police are moving to establish a dedicated organization to oversee the progress of missing-person cases and direct metropolitan-level missing-person investigations. Starting on the 7th, approval from the head of the criminal affairs division will be mandatory, preventing individual officers from closing cases based solely on their own judgment. Police will also work to establish a legal basis for more quickly checking and tracking missing adults’ location information and other data.
The Korean National Police Agency said Kim Jongcheol, acting commissioner general, chaired a meeting on the morning of the 4th to review measures to improve missing-person investigations and discuss these reforms. The meeting followed Kim’s first directive after visiting Jeju Province the previous day, when he ordered the development of measures to reform missing-person investigations.
Police decided to pursue the establishment of a dedicated organization to manage and oversee missing-person cases more systematically. The organization is being considered for responsibilities including supervising the progress of cases and directing metropolitan-level missing-person investigations.
Police are also examining ways to reorganize the overall system for handling missing-person cases. The Criminal Affairs Bureau currently handles searches and investigations, while the Life Safety and Transportation Bureau is responsible for systems and policy, making an integrated response difficult, according to police. Accordingly, police will review a plan to place missing-person policy, searches, and investigations under the National Office of Investigation.
Procedures for closing individual missing-person cases will also be strengthened. Police will improve the Missing Persons Profiling System so that officers cannot close cases at their discretion and must obtain approval from the head of the criminal affairs division. The improved system will be implemented nationwide starting on the 7th.
Police will also implement existing measures requiring every missing-person report to be accepted and the missing person’s identity to be confirmed in person before the case is closed. Cases reported the previous day will continue to be reviewed directly by the police station chief. At the meeting, police reviewed the status of missing-person cases and their handling, as well as 112 Police Emergency Number reports and cases handled by police substations and precinct offices. They also decided to develop additional improvements.
Police are pursuing institutional improvements to expand tracking methods for missing adults. Currently, missing adults are classified as simple runaway cases until signs of a crime are confirmed, limiting the tracking of transit card usage and location information, according to police. As a result, investigations to locate missing people can be delayed or face difficulties.
To address this issue, police decided to establish a legal basis allowing them to check and track information necessary to locate missing adults in the same manner as they do for “missing children and others.”
Police will also reinforce staffing for nighttime and holiday responses. The current system, in which one officer handles a missing-person case, will be changed so that at least two officers respond. Police plan to consult with relevant government ministries about increasing the necessary personnel.
Because it will take considerable time to deploy additional personnel in the field, police will also prepare interim measures that can be used immediately. At night and on holidays, two officers will respond to missing-person cases in coordination with the violent crimes team, while the head of the violent crimes team will manage and supervise the response. Police are reviewing and plan to implement this approach.
Kim emphasized, "Above all, it is important to examine and improve gaps from the perspective of missing people and their families, and to establish a system to verify whether policies are being properly implemented in the field." He also instructed officials to actively listen to the views of employees working in the field, examine structural problems in the work process, and develop effective measures that can work in practice.

[email protected] Kim Ye-ji Reporter