My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 102

“My judgment might have been based on prejudice.”

“Yes, I think it could be. Of course, I don’t think bureaucratic inertia among public officials is a good thing, but it’s not a crime.”

“True. That’s also true. I almost made a mistake.”

Bureaucratic inertia among public officials—that is, not doing their work, slacking off, and avoiding responsibility—has been happening for a long time, but it’s not a crime.

When they cross the line and engage in bribery, a profiler’s analysis naturally comes into play, but there is no profiling for such bureaucratic inertia.

“Profiling Team Leader Seo Su-min….”

“If we consider her a typical public official-type police officer, conversely, she might be obsessed with maintaining and preserving her position. If so, the possibility of her being involved in a crime also decreases.”

“That’s right. That could be true.”

There are quite a few people who are satisfied as long as they can protect their position and receive their monthly salary without taking big risks or seeking great gains.

And such people are not criminals, and their actions must be interpreted differently.

“If we exclude the criminal aspects, she’s the typical public official type who tries to protect her position as much as possible.”

“Such people are less likely to commit crimes.”

Someone who doesn’t want to take responsibility causing big problems? That doesn’t work. People who receive money or bribes are mostly aiming for one big score or are greedier than their abilities allow.

Bureaucratic inertia is about settling into one’s position and trying to protect it. In other words, they are unlikely to do anything that would endanger that position.

“But what kind of threat could you make to such a person? I don’t understand.”

Seo Su-min is clearly a typical public official type. Naturally, she wouldn’t do anything dangerous.

“I think that’s the key to this case.”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you say earlier that someone is behind this case?”

“Right?”

“What if that person could threaten Team Leader Seo Su-min’s position?”

“Huh?”

“Team Leader Seo Su-min is a police officer, but she has the mindset of a public official. If she received such a threat, would she report it?”

“That’s… true. I didn’t think of that. In that situation, she couldn’t report it.”

Unless she had a strong sense of justice and a goal to track down and eradicate the opponent, if she simply wanted to preserve her position, she wouldn’t report or confront a threatening target.

“The other party could use that power to demand something from Team Leader Seo Su-min.”

“Something… What could that something be?”

“Probably investigation records. If someone else sees them, it will be recorded.”

In an era where everything is computerized, if someone checks the records, it will be recorded. And from the beginning, when the position changes, the authority to view related materials also changes.

“She’s been on the run for four years, even though the investigation is ongoing.”

“That’s right. Hmm… I see. We should assume the data was leaked.”

“Yes, and six months have passed since Seo Su-min was replaced as team leader.”

At Park Do-joon’s words, the team leader frowned.

“So, you’re thinking that the former team leader was a corrupt official and that he was likely supplying Wang Su-jin with data all along?”

“Yes, and Team Leader Seo Su-min probably refused to provide the data.”

If Seo Su-min has become the team leader, she is the one who has access to that data.

“Where was the former team leader transferred to?”

“Ugh, he went to the audit office.”

“The audit office?”

“Yes, he was promoted and went up. He’s the head of the audit office now.”

“The head of the audit office can’t see the case files, right?”

“Strictly speaking, it would be recorded if he did.”

The audit office can’t just dig into every case. They can only look at suspicious cases, and the record of viewing that case remains.

“But if Seo Su-min hands it over, the story changes.”

If she prints it out instead of viewing it on the screen, there’s no problem. It won’t be caught, and since Seo Su-min is in charge of the case, it’s not strange for her to see it.

“That’s definitely a strong possibility.”

The team leader nodded at Park Do-joon’s words. Then it mostly fits, except for one thing.

“But there’s still one thing that’s strange. Why is Wang Su-jin going to Seo Su-min? The former team leader should have been the one causing trouble.”

“Isn’t it because it didn’t work?”

“Huh?”

“You’re mistaken too, Team Leader.”

Seo Su-min is showing a typical case of bureaucratic inertia. It’s very likely that others mistook her for a corrupt police officer.

Because it’s similar to the typical behavior of a corrupt police officer.

“However, the difference is that if she thinks she might be harmed, she’ll shut her mouth.”

“Hmm, and if she knows someone is behind her, even more so.”

“That’s right.”

Perhaps the former team leader asked Seo Su-min nicely for the data. But Seo Su-min is the type to cling to her rice bowl [job security]. She couldn’t possibly not know that handing over such things carelessly would cause problems.

So, she probably didn’t give it to him, citing regulations and so on.

“In that case, a secret threat would have been made.”

Not a public threat like this, but a real, quiet threat. And succumbing to that threat, Seo Su-min probably had no choice but to give up reporting or informing her superiors.

“Because she has no sense of justice.”

She has to protect her position, so she won’t actively resist, and in the end, her choice is bureaucratic inertia.

“Well, there are more than a few public officials like that.”

Working as a public official, you can easily find people who keep their mouths shut and stay quiet about crimes committed by their superiors. For them, protecting their position is much more important than justice.

“An unexpected direction.”

“There’s almost no profiling of ordinary people.”

“Ugh.”

There’s no way there would be profiling based on ordinary people, except for criminals like murderers or robbery-murderers, or profiling of petty criminals or other criminals.

“But how do you know all this?”

“I’m just trying to think outside the box. I don’t think it’s possible to track them down by just identifying the criminals.”

“Aren’t you tired?”

“I have to be, even if I’m tired.”

At Park Do-joon’s words, the team leader shook his head.

“How great would it be if those guys did even half of what you do.”

The team leader clicked his tongue and lowered his voice.

“Could it be the former team leader?”

“No. The former team leader may be the head of the audit office, but even so, there’s a limit to how much he can suppress Team Leader Seo Su-min.”

The audit office has the authority to investigate, but not the authority to discipline.

Furthermore, due to the nature of being a former official, if an investigation into a related case begins, he himself becomes subject to investigation, and if Seo Su-min accuses him as the party involved, he doesn’t have the ability to cover it up.

“In the first place, it doesn’t make sense for a team leader to cover up an 18 billion won case.”

At Park Do-joon’s words, the team leader rubbed his chin.

“Then it must be someone higher up.”

“That’s probably it.”

“Anyway, it won’t be easy to track them down. Judging by Seo Su-min’s style, she won’t tell us.”

She’s likely to quietly hand over the data to someone who has protected her position and keep her mouth shut.

Knowing that, the other party sent Wang Su-jin to threaten her.

By sending Wang Su-jin, they showed that they could cover things up even if she confidently walked in and out of the police station.

‘And the threat to Seo Su-min was made at the same time.’

Wang Su-jin came to Seo Su-min. Naturally, if Seo Su-min arrests her, Seo Su-min will be investigated as the party involved in the case.

‘And in the current situation, Wang Su-jin will implicate Seo Su-min.’

One word from Wang Su-jin that she received data from her, and Seo Su-min becomes an accomplice in one fell swoop. And considering Seo Su-min’s style, she wouldn’t be arrested after receiving such a threat.

“Bureaucratic inertia….”

“Someone said that the condition for evil to triumph is not the defeat of good, but the silence of good people.”

For some reason, the team leader had many thoughts at that saying. Working as a profiler, you meet an enormous number of extreme criminals.

And you tend to think mainly about them. But surprisingly, there are many cases where you profile ordinary people.

For example, when tracking down a murderer, the people who help the criminal the most are not just family members. Often, a girlfriend or spouse hides them, even knowing.

Of course, from the police’s point of view, they think about the possibility that the girlfriend is hiding them, but they don’t know why they’re hiding them or what they’re thinking.

They just vaguely think that they’re hiding them because they love them.

But that’s not a profile.

“So, what do you think we should do with Team Leader Seo Su-min? Should we put pressure on her?”

“I don’t think that will work. I don’t think she’ll talk even if we do that.”

“Then?”

“Monitor her while leaving her alone.”

“Monitor?”

“Yes, either way, she has to hand over the data illegally.”

When humans hand over such data, they want to hand it over quietly in a place where there are as few people as possible.

“We can’t rashly offer help.”

First of all, even if we offer help, there’s a high possibility that they won’t believe us, and if we step in without knowing who the other party is, we could be in danger.

‘And a public official who engages in bureaucratic inertia should be cut off, normally.’

It may be unfair from Team Leader Seo Su-min’s perspective, but she’s a police officer, not another profession. If a police officer engages in bureaucratic inertia, the victim suffers the damage.

In reality, there are countless such cases. They just watch people get beaten up, they just stand outside and watch people get stabbed with a knife, and there were even cases where the police screamed and ran away while someone was being stabbed with a knife to kill them.

Even these are just big cases that have been reported in the media, and there are countless cases where victims are harmed or lose their lives because the police don’t do their jobs.

‘You can do bureaucratic inertia in other professions, but not the police.’

Park Do-joon thought that way, so he had no intention of protecting Seo Su-min.

“Eventually, Seo Su-min will succumb. And that will be the opportunity.”

“It would be difficult to report to the higher-ups, right?”

“Yes, it’s difficult in this case.”

Unfortunately, the former official is in the audit office. Furthermore, it wasn’t even possible to know how far up this went.

“Then what should we do?”

“Let’s ask an acquaintance who is a prosecutor.”

“An acquaintance who is a prosecutor?”

“Yes, there’s a prosecutor who made some connections before to clean up the inside.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes.”