My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 243

“Are these guys crazy? What have they done?”

Park Do-joon’s hands trembled. Of course, if a reporter obtains information, they can write an article about it. But at the very least, they should verify the facts before writing. However, this article clearly used only the parts that were disadvantageous to the bereaved family.

“Attorney Kang, please go back and evacuate the bereaved family. Reporters will be swarming soon.”

“Understood.”

“And check if they can receive psychological treatment, as they will be in shock.”

Kang Soo-won nodded and immediately rushed out. Park Do-joon gritted his teeth.

“Which bastard did this….”

“Detective Park, this was leaked from the police, right?”

“That’s right. It was leaked from the police.”

Lee Ji-soo, being a profiler, seemed to know why this situation occurred. She trembled with anger.

“Detective, how do you know? Couldn’t the reporter have written it based on their own investigation?”

Jung Yi-yeon asked, just in case. But Park Do-joon shook his head.

“You can tell from the reporter’s tone. Reporters use all sorts of tricks to avoid responsibility.”

A typical example is when news reports say ‘according to sources.’

“And it says here that there are related parties.”

“But they also create non-existent related parties to avoid responsibility, right?”

“Yes, but this case is a bit different. The reason they framed Park Ho-yeon’s family wasn’t because they thought there was a real crime to begin with. On the contrary, it’s to cover up the police’s mistakes and prevent Park Ho-yeon’s family from retaliating.”

Of course, even if it goes to court in this state, a guilty verdict will never come out. Would the prosecution be crazy enough to indict based solely on the assumption that the family knew details of the child’s life and had many complaints? Even if the prosecution did indict, the court would obviously reject it.

“Of course, they can’t officially indict after that due to the backlash.”

The purpose is just to create an excuse, saying, ‘We only investigated the family because, in light of past child abuse cases, there was a possibility that the family was the perpetrator.’

Since that’s actually the case, the police’s excuses will be accepted by the reporters.

“But this changes things.”

Because once it becomes an issue, the police know that if it’s linked to their incompetence, they’ll be criticized by the media.

Wanting to prevent it from becoming an issue, but creating one? This is quite unusual.

“Furthermore, the reporter said it was internal information. That means they’re openly saying that the police are investigating in the wrong direction from the start. What will happen when the real culprit is caught later?”

“It becomes more disadvantageous for them.”

“That’s right.”

The fact that they released this information means someone secretly reported it.

“And looking at the current situation, everyone seems to be unaware.”

Park Do-joon glanced at the others. Everyone looked bewildered and confused. If the informant was among them, they had to be an incredibly good actor.

“Why is the atmosphere getting so strange?”

“If it becomes an issue, someone has to take responsibility. And who usually takes that responsibility?”

“Ah, I understand clearly now that I hear you say that, Detective.”

Someone has to take responsibility. And in South Korea’s power structure, that person is naturally the subordinate. Even if the higher-ups get hurt a little, if the higher-up’s neck is scratched, the subordinate’s neck is cut off and hung in the middle of the marketplace. That’s how the South Korean civil service works.

“The situation has become one where things can only get bigger.”

And for the police who ignored this case, their jobs are now hanging by a thread. As Park Do-joon said, the police couldn’t hide their agitation.

“Which bastard is it? Huh? Which bastard blabbed?”

“Damn it. Hey, what are we going to do?”

In particular, the team leader of the violent crimes unit was trembling with a pale face. It was inevitable, as the team leader would 100% lose his job if this blew up.

The team leader was the one who refused to accept the case, saying not to lie when the incident occurred, and the team leader was the one who proceeded with the investigation, suspecting the bereaved family.

Now, it’s a do-or-die situation for him. In this case, he’ll take all the responsibility and be demoted. It would be fortunate if it ended with a pay cut or reprimand. Usually, they’re transferred to an island, effectively saying, ‘Get out.’ That’s usually what happens. In reality, most police officers have no choice but to leave when faced with this situation.

“Who the hell is it?”

“No, what did they do?”

Everyone had a bewildered expression, so Park Do-joon frowned.

“Could someone have secretly snitched for money?”

“That’s unlikely.”

“Why?”

Park Do-joon shook his head at Lee Ji-soo’s question.

“Because the money is on the opposite side.”

“Huh?”

“Think about it logically. Which would be more lucrative: revealing that the police are framing the victim or revealing that the police are investigating the case?”

“Ah!”

Obviously, the former. The latter is just informing people that the police are working and doesn’t really affect anyone. It just directs people’s anger towards the perpetrator.

“But the former changes things.”

It’s not just framing a non-existent perpetrator, but creating guilt for a definite organization called the police. The media gets far more views from that.

And even if they get caught later, they can claim they were a conscientious whistleblower and avoid responsibility.

“I guess if they leaked the latter, they’d definitely be fired.”

“That’s right, but even though they don’t always abide by it, there’s still legal protection for internal whistleblowers.”

Naturally, if someone were reporting for money, they would choose to expose the police’s unfair actions for safety and more money.

“Detective, then can’t we catch the culprit?”

“We can roughly deduce it by looking at the purpose of the report.”

“The purpose of the report?”

“I just said it. This isn’t internal whistleblowing.”

It’s not that someone was dissatisfied with framing the bereaved family and blew the whistle internally, but rather they leaked the information to frame the bereaved family.

“Every crime has someone who benefits from it in some form.”

Unless someone suddenly goes crazy and commits a random act, every crime has a purpose and a benefit gained from it.

“You know, right? Just by finding that purpose, you can identify more than 80% of the culprits.”

Lee Ji-soo nodded at Park Do-joon’s question. Even if the profiling department’s classes are at a basic level, the lesson on the perpetrator’s purpose is the most fundamental.

Purpose is the most basic aspect of all crimes, and if you can’t identify it, profiling itself is impossible. Even if it seems absurd or incomprehensible to others, the perpetrator is acting for a purpose from their perspective.

“Are you going to profile the police?”

“I have to. Just because they’re police doesn’t mean they’re not human.”

Moreover, this kind of behavior is what criminals who destroy the police organization do. This isn’t internal whistleblowing; this is the act of a criminal, not a police officer.

“Let’s move first.”

Park Do-joon took the two to a place outside where there were no people. Fortunately, the reporters waiting outside thought there was nothing to gain when Jung Yi-yeon presented her lawyer identification, so they let the three pass without a second thought.

The reporters just thought they were lawyers who came to the police station for work. So the three were able to avoid the others and go to a quiet cafe a little further away.

“What do you think?”

“The thing I don’t understand when I think about this kind of case is: who could possibly benefit from this kind of action?”

Lee Ji-soo raised a question as soon as they sat down, as if she had been thinking about it on the way.

“This only harms the police organization. Even if they do media play [strategic use of media to influence public opinion] in the current situation, there’s no evidence that the bereaved family is the culprit.”

In other words, no matter how much media play they do, they can cause pain to the bereaved family, but realistically, it’s impossible for the bereaved family to be punished as a result.

“I know. But the benefit is likely to be an individual benefit, not an organizational one.”

“An individual benefit?”

“Yes, people usually think that when something happens within an organization, it’s for the organization’s benefit, but in reality, most actions are linked to individual benefits. They just claim it’s for the organization’s benefit.”

“Hmm….”

“Think about it simply. All members of the National Assembly claim that the legitimacy of their actions is for the sake of the people.”

“Ah, I get it now.”

Members of the National Assembly wield the law and power, saying that they are all working hard for the people. They raise taxes on the people, or multiply the money given to members of the National Assembly several times, or even oppose the conversion of firefighters to national civil servants, all while making excuses that it’s for the sake of the people.

“Actions for the organization are 10%? No, not even 1%. When you look inside, the reality is that their own interests and benefits are prioritized.”

“Then it’s probably not a mistake by a detective who doesn’t know the situation.”

“That’s right. There are more losses than gains in this.”

It’s common for police to leak information to the outside. They receive money from reporters and pass it on, and sometimes they report it because they think it’s wrong.

“But there’s no reason to do that in this case.”

First of all, that’s a possible thing to do. But the police also have common sense. It’s difficult for people outside to talk about this to reporters when there’s no information yet.

The case itself is also being conducted in secret. It can’t be helped, because it doesn’t look good to frame the bereaved family.

“But the report is more detailed than I thought.”

That means it has to be someone who knows the practicalities of the case well or someone who has access to the case records.

“But most of the people who can do that know the truth of the case.”

Naturally, there’s almost no possibility that they’ll leak information in this way.

“Then who is the one who profits from it?”

“First of all, it’s not a front-line police officer.”

Front-line police officers are bound to lose out if things get bigger. They did what they were told to do from above, but at the same time, they committed illegal acts.

No matter how much they say they did it because they were told to, the punishment will never be light.

The smallest punishment would be dismissal, and in the worst case, they could go to jail. If a police officer, especially from the violent crimes unit, goes to jail, they have to worry about survival, so they’ll never try to make things bigger.

“Another one is another police officer who has a grudge against the violent crimes unit.”

“But the possibility of that is not high, right?”

Park Do-joon nodded at Lee Ji-soo’s words.