Jeju police under fire: missing cases closed with 'death' entry, violent crime arrest rate ranks last nationwide

Entering 'death' automatically closes missing persons cases

Incident prompts review of case-handling procedures

Supervisor approval to be required before closure

Jeju agency posts lowest violent crime arrest rate in country

Officials cite high incident volume and difficulty tracking suspects off island

Police conduct a forensic examination at a palm tree farm in Hallim-eup, Jeju, on Monday, where the body of Jang Mi-ran, who had been reported missing months earlier, was discovered. [Yonhap]

The case of Jang Mi-ran, 37, has thrown a spotlight on shoddy case management at the Jeju Provincial Police Agency and across the broader police force. The incident exposed a glaring vulnerability in the system: a single officer could unilaterally close a missing persons case through the police internal network. Questions are also mounting over the Jeju agency's capacity to handle violent crime, following sustained criticism over its handling of the search for the missing woman.

Entering 'death' closes missing case — supervisor approval now mandatory

The back-to-back discoveries of a man in his 60s and Jang — both found dead after being reported missing in Jeju — have drawn sharp criticism over the police's management of missing persons cases. The officer from the Jeju Western Police Station who handled both cases, identified by the surname Bu, was found to have filed false internal reports claiming contact had been made with the missing persons and to have deleted case records from the police database.

According to police, Officer Bu closed Jang's case on his own just two and a half hours after receiving the initial missing persons report on May 15, entering "death in a traffic accident" as the reason for closure in the internal missing persons management system. When a case is closed with "death" as the reason, it is automatically removed from the active monitoring list. Jang was effectively marked as deceased in the system and dropped from oversight before her whereabouts had even been confirmed.

Officer Bu, who faces charges including dereliction of duty, falsification of electronic public records and obstruction of official duties by deception, leaves the Jeju District Court on Tuesday after attending a pre-arrest warrant hearing. [Yonhap]

Critics say the police oversight system failed to catch a closure entry as serious as a missing person's death, pointing to a fundamental breakdown in the management and supervision of missing persons cases. The Korean National Police Agency announced it would introduce a mandatory supervisor approval requirement before any missing persons case can be closed, replacing the current system that allows frontline officers to act alone.

Officers in the field warn, however, that simply adding a verification step without addressing staffing levels in missing persons units could limit the measure's effectiveness. The head of a missing persons unit at a Seoul police station said the teams typically operate with five or fewer officers, meaning even unit leaders cannot focus solely on oversight and instead work the same rotating shifts as their subordinates. The leader said there can be real difficulties in managing every case, given the volume of missing persons reports received and the practical limits of having a supervisor review each one.

The missing persons unit's reputation within the force as an undesirable posting has also been flagged as a structural problem. A former senior police officer, identified only by the surname A, said capable officers tend to avoid the unit because it is seen as a place people get pushed into rather than choose. That perception, the former officer said, often leaves staff with little motivation to work proactively.

Police have launched a comprehensive review of all missing persons cases handled by Officer Bu, placing significant weight on the possibility that there are additional victims of falsified closures. Bu is confirmed to have handled 289 missing persons cases on his own since joining the missing persons unit in March last year.

Police said an autopsy confirmed that the body discovered Monday during a search at a palm tree farm near Hallim-eup, Jeju — 104 days after Jang was first reported missing — was that of Jang.

Jeju agency's detective division, which handles missing persons searches, ranks last nationwide in violent crime arrests

The detective division — the unit responsible for missing persons searches like the one in Jang's case — also handles violent crimes including murder, rape, robbery and arson. Beyond the failures in the Jang investigation, the Jeju Provincial Police Agency has been found to perform poorly on violent crime response more broadly.

Police compile and publish annual national statistics on crimes reported and arrests made by category. In those figures, the Jeju agency ranked last among all agencies nationwide twice in the past four years, from 2021 to 2024, in the ratio of violent crime arrests to reported incidents. Even in years it avoided last place, its rate remained below the national average.

A comparison of violent crime incident and arrest rates for the Jeju Provincial Police Agency against all 18 provincial and metropolitan police agencies nationwide, 2021–2024. [Korean National Police Agency]

The figures indicate the agency is failing to make arrests at the same rate crimes are being committed. While other agencies sometimes exceed 100 percent — by arresting suspects from the previous year in the following year — the Jeju agency has hovered in the low 90s.

Crime analysis statistics from the Korean National Police Agency covering 2021 to 2024 show the Jeju agency has consistently ranked near the bottom, either placing last or barely avoiding doing so. The violent crimes tracked in the statistics include completed and attempted murder, robbery, rape and quasi-rape, sexual assault, other sexual offenses involving assault or injury, and arson.

In 2024, the Jeju agency's violent crime arrest rate stood at 92 percent, below the national average of 95.9 percent across all 18 provincial and metropolitan police agencies, placing it 18th — last — in the country.

The poor performance is not new. The agency also ranked last in 2022, with a rate of 93.9 percent. In years it avoided the bottom spot, it still remained in the lower tier, finishing 15th in both 2021 and 2023.

A Jeju Provincial Police Agency official said the rate of violent crime incidents per capita has been the highest in the country for more than a decade. The official added that suspects in cases occurring on Jeju Island frequently leave the island, making investigations more difficult than those conducted on the mainland.

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