"News Came Out, So Why Don't You Know?"... Police Officer Who Lost Live Ammo Unjustly Takes It Out on Citizens

Investigation Targeted for Searching 'Sil-tan'
Concerns Raised Over Excessive Investigation and Personal Data Leakage

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] On the afternoon of the 18th, at 4 p.m., lawyer Lee Jong-chan (Law Firm Just) received a call from an unknown number. On the other end of the phone, a man urgently said, "This is not voice phishing, so please do not hang up." Surprisingly, the caller was a police officer from the Violent Crime Investigation Team of the Yongsan Police Station in Seoul. Last May, lawyer Lee had searched for the term ‘sil-tan’ (live ammunition) on a portal site, and the police called to verify any connection between him and the 'Presidential Office Security Unit Live Ammunition Loss Incident' that occurred around the same time. During the approximately five-minute conversation, various questions and answers were exchanged, and when lawyer Lee said he was unaware of the live ammunition loss incident itself, the police immediately retorted, "It was widely reported in the news, so why don’t you know about it?" Lawyer Lee said, "I felt uneasy, as if I had become a suspect in the police investigation," adding, "If someone unfamiliar with the police had received the call, they might have been scared."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the police on the 27th, the Yongsan Police Station in Seoul obtained a search warrant from the Seoul Western District Court last year for major portal sites such as Naver and Kakao and conducted a forced investigation. The purpose of the investigation was to secure electronic records containing the keyword ‘sil-tan’ (live ammunition). It is presumed that they obtained identity information of individuals who repeatedly searched for specific terms like ‘sil-tan’ around the time the police lost the live ammunition in May last year.

The reason the police launched the forced investigation was to find the lost live ammunition. Officer A, belonging to the 101 Security Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, lost live ammunition used for a .38 caliber pistol near the Yongsan Presidential Office on May 18 last year. The police only became aware of the ammunition loss belatedly during a shift change. Since then, the police have been tracking the person who picked up the ammunition on suspicion of embezzlement of lost property but have not yet found them.

The problem is that the scope of this forced investigation is extensive. This is why there is criticism that the investigation is excessive. Simply searching for ‘sil-tan’ (live ammunition) puts a person under investigation, and personal information such as name and phone number is handed over to the police. Article 199, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Procedure Act stipulates that forced measures must be carried out within the minimum necessary scope. Furthermore, Paragraph 2 of the same law allows inquiries to other public or private organizations for necessary reports related to investigations but does not impose an obligation on those organizations to report.

The Constitutional Court has also pointed out that investigative agencies should minimize the scope of accessing personal information. In 2013, during the railway union strike, the Yongsan Police Station requested and received medical benefit details of Kim and Park, who were executives of the National Railway Labor Union, from the National Health Insurance Corporation to additionally track location information. However, the Constitutional Court ruled that the corporation’s provision of medical benefit details to the Yongsan Police Station infringed on the right to informational self-determination. The court explained, "The police had already received location tracking data from telecommunications service providers before requesting medical benefit details," and "The provision of information to the police must be unavoidable for performing duties such as criminal investigations."

It is also questionable whether the portal site search warrant has advanced the investigation. Lawyer Lee said, "When I stated that I searched for ‘sil-tan’ on the portal to understand the case the police had asked about, they ended the call without much suspicion," adding, "The calls were made indiscriminately, and the investigation methods were sloppy. I wonder if it was really necessary to seize portal sites and obtain personal information." He also added, "It is regrettable that the court did not block the excessive search warrant at the judicial level."