Police officer indicted without detention for chasing and arresting hit-and-run criminal

(Uiseong = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Seon-hyung = A police officer who illegally arrested a driver by filling out false documents as if he had chased and caught the driver who caused a fatal hit-and-run accident and confessed to the crime by going to the police station himself was handed over to trial.

The Uiseong Branch of the Daegu District Prosecutors' Office announced on the 1st that it had indicted Inspector A of a police station in the Gyeongbuk region without detention on the 30th of last month on charges of arrest for abuse of power, falsification of electronic records, etc., use of forged electronic records, and violation of the Act on Promotion of Digitalization of Criminal Justice Procedures.

Inspector A is accused of accompanying Mr. B, a suspect in a hit-and-run accident who voluntarily attended the police station on May 22, to the police station for questioning, and then falsely described the circumstances of his arrest as if he had been chased at the scene and arrested urgently.

Mr. B is accused of causing a traffic accident while drunk around midnight on May 22 and leaving the scene. The accident victim later died.

When the police identified Mr. B based on his vehicle license plate number and visited his residence, Mr. B found out about this and went to the police station on his own at around 6 PM on the same day.

Mr. B, who voluntarily accompanied the police to the police station, was interrogated as a suspect and confessed to charges of drunk driving and hit-and-run.

However, Inspector A urgently arrested Mr. B at around 10:30 pm on the same day.

During this process, Inspector A was found to have falsely stated the date, place, and circumstances of arrest in the emergency arrest form, as if he had chased down and arrested Mr. B in front of the police station at 6:16 PM on the same day.

While reviewing the emergency arrest approval requested by the police that day, the prosecution found that the circumstances of the emergency arrest were unclear and requested an explanation from the police.

The police again requested approval for emergency arrest without any additional supplements, and the prosecution did not approve it in the early morning of the next day and took action to immediately release Mr. B.

The prosecution later received the case and investigated the police officers involved in the arrest and determined that the requirements for emergency arrest, such as concerns about flight or destruction of evidence, were not met because Mr. B had voluntarily appeared and confessed to the crime.

In addition, it was confirmed that Inspector A had falsely created related records as if he had chased down Mr. B at the scene and arrested him urgently.

The prosecution requested the Prosecutors' Citizens' Committee to review the disposition of Inspector A, and the committee unanimously issued a recommendation for indictment.

Accordingly, the prosecution indicted Inspector A without detention on the 30th of last month.

Mr. B was also indicted without detention on charges related to a hit-and-run death accident on the same day.

Shin Eun-sik, head of the Uiseong branch, said, "In a situation where there is no supplementary investigation, we must first look at the records to make a decision. However, the police judged that it was right to severely punish those who write false information in the records, so we booked the case and investigated it."