The text message service for missing persons started on June 9. It has already had a significant impact on reducing the average discovery time required to find missing persons. What is the service? Information about a missing person is sent to people by emergency text message. According to the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA)’s press release, the service procedure is for concerned parties to send personal information such as age, appearance, clothing, and other information necessary for the discovery when a missing incident occurs. In addition, to prevent abuse, they should send text messages between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. Only once within the same area for the same person.
This service reduces the burden of police officers with the help of citizens. Citizens who receive the message can look for the missing person directly or through their social network. What should we do when we receive a message? Usually, people don’t seriously care when messages arrive and rarely read them carefully. Instead of ignoring it, we should have the attitude that “We should find them together.”
To help, you can enroll in the SAFETY Dream program of the Center for Missing Persons using the website (https://www.safe182.go.kr/index.do), app, or visit the nearest district or police office. Before this service, the average discovery time to find missing persons was 34 hours. However, among the 167 cases of text message transmissions, about 60 cases (35.9%) were resolved. The average discovery time was 3 hours and 10 minutes, ten times faster than before.
On October 20, a missing person was discovered in 7 minutes by an elementary school student in Daegu. He read the delivered text carefully. After checking the impression of the missing person, he found her and reported it to the police.
In another case, a man found someone who had been missing for a long time. Thanks to the text message service for a missing person, the family reunited after fifteen years.
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