Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon said on Aug. 23 that, in connection with the case of Jang Mi-ran, 37, who went missing in Jeju, footage from 118 closed-circuit (CC)TV cameras near the presumed disappearance point appears to have been entirely deleted around mid-June.
According to materials Han received that day from Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, all footage from a total of 118 CCTVs—111 crime-prevention CCTVs across Hallim-eup where Jang vanished and seven traffic-information collection cameras at the Jeju Provincial Autonomous Police Agency's Traffic Information Center—had been deleted for the time of the disappearance.
Jeju Province explained that the footage was automatically deleted after the 30-day retention period expired.
As a result, no footage remains from May 12 to May 20, which includes the presumed disappearance date (May 13). The deletion dates were identified as between June 11 and June 19.
Police attempted to secure the footage only after the retention deadline had already passed. According to Han, the Jeju Western Police Station did not send an official letter requesting access to the crime-prevention CCTV footage to Jeju Province until on the 19th. That was 98 days from Jang's presumed disappearance date, 96 days from the initial report (May 15), and 61 days from when all footage was deleted (June 19).
Han said, "The CCTV that could have been a clue to gauging the whereabouts of Jang Mi-ran, who went missing in Jeju, disappeared due to a police officer's closure of the case," adding, "At the time of the initial report on May 15, footage from all 118 cameras was preserved, and it was fully possible to secure it."
He added, "The criminal justice system is not designed on the assumption that every investigator will be competent and diligent. Because of that limitation, double- and triple-layered mechanisms were put in place, and one of the core ones was the supplementary investigation authority," noting, "The Democratic Party removed that mechanism without an alternative. In the end, the mechanism to filter out inadequate initial investigations disappeared, and the price is being paid by the victim and the family."