Jeju Provincial Police reported that they have transferred one officer affiliated with the Seogwipo Police Station to the prosecution on charges of tampering with electronic records, violating the Information and Communication Network Act, and abandonment of duty. It was revealed that the officer dismissed a case without the consent of the plaintiff and informant during the process. The police stated that the officer manipulated the case by accessing the Criminal Information System (KICS), used for processing criminal cases, with the team leader's ID and approving the dismissal.

However, the police are withholding details such as the duration, frequency, and motives of the misconduct. Particularly, they have not disclosed the specific harm caused by the case manipulation, whether there were victims who suffered disadvantages or were wronged, and whether the subsequent handling of the case was appropriate. While the police regularly disclose information about general cases or those related to their achievements through briefings or the media, criticism towards the police is growing for not being transparent about internal misconduct.

Furthermore, it has been revealed that this incident is not the first case of manipulation by Jeju police. Another officer, who was stationed at Jeju Western Police Station, accessed the KICS system using a colleague's account for two years and manipulated around 10 cases. Prior to this, another senior officer from Seogwipo Police Station was caught manipulating 14 records of traffic accident investigations over an 11-month period.

On the other hand, the government, in response to frequent cases of unjustified refusal of some criminal complaints by investigative agencies and instances where citizens affected by everyday crimes did not receive proper investigations, abolished the dismissal system in November of last year. Since then, it has made it mandatory to accept and process criminal complaints and reports.

In relation to case manipulation, Jeju police added that they aim to prevent similar issues from recurring by revising investigation rules. They mentioned that, when logging into the Criminal Information System (KICS), a notification will be displayed when accessing through text messages, ensuring that others' IDs cannot be used indiscriminately.

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Jenny Choi  (jchoi2025@chadwickschool.org)