An active-duty police officer accused of falsely closing a missing-person report in Jeju will be sent to prosecutors next week. Prosecutors said they plan to form a dedicated investigation team to check whether there are any other false closures.
According to the Jeju Metropolitan Police Agency on the 30th, police plan to refer to the Jeju District Prosecutors' Office next week a man in his 30s with the surname Bu, a senior patrol officer with the Jeju Seobu Police Station, who was arrested on charges of dereliction of duty, falsifying and using official electronic records, and obstructing the performance of official duties by deception.
The Jeju District Prosecutors' Office formed a dedicated investigation team for Senior Patrol Officer Bu's case on the 24th. The head of the Criminal Division 1 is serving as the lead prosecutor, and affiliated members were assigned as team members.
When the case is handed over, prosecutors plan to review the police investigation records to look into Senior Patrol Officer Bu's motive, any additional false closure cases, and whether there were any resulting damages.
In this case, it was revealed that Senior Patrol Officer Bu falsely closed a missing-person report, after which a superior approved it. Further investigation is still needed into whether Bu also falsely closed other missing-person cases.
Prosecutors are preparing for the implementation on Oct. 2 of an amended Criminal Procedure Act that centers on abolishing the supplementary investigation authority. When this law takes effect, prosecutors will no longer be able to conduct direct investigations or directly conduct supplementary investigations into referred cases. Attention is also on how prosecutors will investigate the specific circumstances of cases.
Senior Patrol Officer Bu is accused of lying to the complainant in May that he had made contact with Jang, a woman in her 30s who was reported missing, and then closing the case internally. He is also charged with falsely deleting Jang's data from the management list of the missing-person profiling system.
Senior Patrol Officer Bu is also accused of falsely closing, on the 2nd of last month, a missing-person case involving a man in his 60s in a way similar to Jang's case.
Police found the body of a man in his 60s in the Jeju area on the 22nd. Then, on the morning of the 24th, they also recovered Jang's body in Hallim-eup, Jeju City.