People Power Party Vice Chairman Yoon Ki-chan Urges Lee Jae-myung's Apology, Criticizes Police: "Superficial Measures Ignoring the Field"

Vice Chairman Yoon Ki-chan criticized the police leadership for only issuing superficial policies without communicating with commanders and practitioners in actual investigation fields. He pointed out that while it seems problems can be solved merely through legislative action in the National Assembly or police commissioner meetings, the real difficulties and demands for institutional improvements from the field are not properly heard. He explained that formal situation assessments are being made based primarily on paper reports, failing to reflect the practical difficulties of field operations.

Vice Chairman Yoon argued that the police's internal investigation closure system has institutional limitations that prevent external control if the organization intentionally conceals information. He stated that if information is deliberately omitted from investigation records, there is no way for external parties to verify it. He explained that especially after the independence of investigative powers, the police's self-closure authority has been strengthened, further increasing the problem of the closed nature of internal organizational security. This situation, he added, is similar to the past when external verification mechanisms, such as prosecutors' demands for supplementary investigations, disappeared.

Vice Chairman Yoon Ki-chan emphasized that even in cases of adult runaways, investigations should be actively initiated if there is a suspicion of crime. He explained that once an investigation begins, grounds are established for prosecutors to monitor and direct the situation. However, currently, there is a structural problem where crime suspicion judgment is inadequate in the initial stages, leading to delays in initiating investigations. He criticized that this insufficient initial response is a cause for missing the golden hour in solving missing person cases.

Vice Chairman Yoon pointed out that the police organization itself fails to clearly distinguish between tasks such as investigation, crime prevention, and public safety activities. He noted that commanders like precinct chiefs often experience various duties such as actual investigations and security, leading to confusion about their own areas of expertise. This mixing of duties leads to errors in field judgment and results in field response manuals not being properly utilized and becoming defunct.

Vice Chairman Yoon Ki-chan chastised the administrative incompetence of not properly utilizing existing laws. He specifically cited cases where missing person investigations failed because laws allowing location tracking for disabled individuals who have received mental health treatment were not applied, despite being in place. He attributed this to a lack of training for relevant public officials and a lack of understanding of duties by commanders, i.e., overall poor management. He urged for substantive policy meetings to find feasible solutions for field application, rather than merely issuing strict punishment directives.