Yongsan Police Station Deletes Report on 'Halloween Safety Accident' Concerns After Tragedy

Police Agency Special Inspection Team Begins Investigation

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Seongpil Cho, Byungseon Gong] It has been revealed that the Intelligence Division of the Yongsan Police Station in Seoul posted multiple intelligence reports on the internal network expressing concerns about safety accidents during the Itaewon Halloween event period, and then deleted them after the tragedy. The Police Agency’s Special Inspection Team is currently investigating whether there was any evidence tampering related to this matter.

According to a compilation of reports from this outlet on the 6th, police officers belonging to the Intelligence Division of Yongsan Station prepared several intelligence reports ahead of the Itaewon Halloween festival and uploaded them to the internal network. The reports commonly noted concerns about safety accidents due to large crowds gathering. However, it has been confirmed that all these reports were deleted from the internal network after the tragedy on the 29th of last month. Some suspect that the reports were deliberately deleted as issues regarding the police’s initial response on the day of the disaster surfaced.

The Intelligence Division of Yongsan Station stated that the reports were deleted because they became unnecessary, based on the “Regulations on Police Officers’ Information Collection and Processing.” According to these regulations, intelligence reports must be promptly discarded once the information collected and prepared has fulfilled its purpose and is no longer needed. It is also reported that the Intelligence Division submitted the original offline copies of the reports to the Special Inspection Team.

An official from the inspection team said, “The investigation regarding these suspicions is ongoing,” and added, “We are checking whether the reports submitted by the Intelligence Division are complete or if there are more.” A representative from Yongsan Station stated, “We will sincerely cooperate with the inspection and investigation.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.