CU Prevented 100 Missing Cases Including Children and Dementia Patients Through 'iCU'

CU announced that the number of cases where missing persons have returned to their families through the missing prevention reporting system ‘iCU’ has exceeded 100 this month.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] CU announced on the 25th that the number of cases where individuals returned to their families through the missing person prevention reporting system ‘iCU’ has exceeded 100 this month.

iCU is a public-private cooperative social safety net that CU has operated since 2017 in collaboration with the National Police Agency, utilizing the nation's largest offline network to safely protect lost children and others at stores and hand them over to the police or their families. According to case types reported over the past five years, children who lost their parents accounted for the largest proportion at 65%. This was followed by dementia patients (24%), people with intellectual disabilities (10%), and foreigners and others (1%).

As the effectiveness of missing person prevention increased, CU recently added a suspected child abuse reporting function, which has become a social issue. Additionally, CU signed a ‘Joint Cooperation Agreement for the Prevention and Early Detection of Missing Dementia Patients’ with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and also serves as a shelter for dementia (suspected) patients.

A BGF Retail official stated, “CU plays a role like a good friend protecting the safety of local communities together with franchise owners and staff working at over 15,000 stores nationwide,” adding, “We will continue to faithfully carry out public interest activities as a safety platform to protect the safety and happiness of all of us.”