My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 451

# It Seems Like You’re Looking for the Wrong Thing?

Park Do-joon headed to the Shinan Police Station, where he met Yoo Gi-tae, the head of the special investigation unit in charge of the case.

“Profiler Park Do-joon? I’ve been expecting you. I’m Yoo Gi-tae.”

“Park Do-joon. This is my partner, Detective Lee Ji-soo. Anyway…”

Park Do-joon glanced at Yoo Gi-tae and offered a wry smile.

“It seems you’re not exactly being welcomed.”

“Pardon?”

“Aren’t you the new kid on the block?”

Yoo Gi-tae gave a forced smile at those words.

“Let’s go inside. It seems we have a lot to talk about.”

As they followed him, Lee Ji-soo quietly asked, “Detective, how did you know?”

“Does it make sense that no one would come along when the head of the special investigation unit requests cooperation on a case?”

“Ah.”

Indeed, no one had accompanied Yoo Gi-tae. He wasn’t expecting a formal escort, but given the case’s nature, which required cooperation from those currently working in the field, it was clear they were unwilling to help.

“They’re probably more dissatisfied with Director Yoo Gi-tae for stirring things up. He’s an outsider.”

“That’s right.”

Yoo Gi-tae, who was listening, nodded. “I’m not going to be here forever anyway.”

Special investigation units are sometimes formed with local police, but if the local police are suspected of corruption, officers from outside the area are brought in. In most cases, they return to their original posts once the case is resolved.

“From the perspective of the police trying to cover up the case, I’m seen as someone who’s just making a mess and leaving.”

“You know it well.”

“No organization likes outsiders,” Yoo Gi-tae added.

“Especially organizations with a lot to hide.”

“But there should be other dispatched officers, right?”

Park Do-joon smiled wryly at Lee Ji-soo’s question. “Yes, that’s the problem. There will be only a few dispatched officers, and they’re the only ones you can trust. So, what happens?”

“Aha!”

Naturally, the dispatched officers will be swamped with work, and their workload will become excessive. Moreover, Shinan is terribly complicated and has a ridiculously large number of islands.

Shinan, the city of angels.

That’s Shinan’s promotional slogan, but it’s not because the people here are as kind as angels or because it’s a paradise to live in, but because the actual number of islands exceeds 1,000.

Officially, Shinan has 72 inhabited islands and 953 uninhabited islands, totaling 1,025 islands.

“Due to the nature of the islands, there are clear limitations to enforcement.”

Furthermore, with the local police subtly refusing to cooperate, the dispatched officers have to patrol those islands on their own, and for safety reasons, they have to move in groups.

“Would they harm the police?”

“Of course, they wouldn’t go that far. But can you really enter those islands or salt farms with just two or three people?”

Naturally, the farm managers or owners will try to prevent them from entering, using that opportunity to hide the slaves in secret places known only to them. Moreover, they can’t take the local police with them, because the information about the raid would leak out.

“That’s what has been happening.”

It’s not that they don’t know about the slave problem, but they call in advance when a raid is planned, saying, ‘We’ll be conducting a raid around this time, so please stay home that day.’

It’s a request for cooperation for the raid in name only; it’s just a blatant warning to hide the slaves.

“You know it well.”

“Well, I know it well. I’m the one who stirred things up.”

Following Yoo Gi-tae’s guidance, Park Do-joon entered the conference room.

Only after entering the quiet conference room, closing the blinds, and locking the door did Yoo Gi-tae seem relieved.

“I’m sorry to have to talk like this, avoiding the eyes of others. I wish I could speak more confidently.”

“No, it’s okay.”

Since Park Do-joon was the one who had dismantled the Mokpo Police Station, which was in charge of Shinan, there was no way the others would be happy to see him.

“Moreover, you guys are… how should I put it.”

“You mean they criticize us for doing unnecessary things?”

“Yes, that’s probably it.”

Yoo Gi-tae let out a long sigh.

“As you know, many people with disabilities disappear every year. Some of them are women. And I found out about this while rescuing intellectually disabled people who were enslaved here.”

“I’ve seen the reports as well.”

Two people with intellectual disabilities had disappeared: a sister and a brother.

The brother was found in Shinan, but where did the sister go?

“The first thought that comes to mind is that she’s being held as a sex slave.”

“Probably 100% likely.”

“But the local police think the possibility is low. Moreover, they openly argue that we’re creating unnecessary work.”

“It can’t be helped. From their perspective.”

It’s not just a matter of increased workload; at this point, they can’t avoid disciplinary action.

However, Lee Ji-soo looked incredulous at those words. The police who neglected male slaves are left alone, but the police who neglected female slaves are punished?

“Why is that?”

“In Korea, crimes against women are punished more severely than crimes against men.”

“Ah, there is that.”

“Furthermore, sex crimes are punished much more severely than simple labor crimes.”

Korea has the painful history of comfort women [women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military] perpetrated by Japan in the past. In other words, the public is extremely sensitive to the issue of sex slavery because of the trauma caused by the Japanese military.

“In the case of disabled labor slaves, the police probably won’t be punished in reality.”

In fact, it’s not uncommon for labor slaves to be discovered, but there has never been a case where the police who concealed it were punished, even if the police who investigated it were disciplined.

“But sex slavery is different.”

The women’s and political circles in Korea will rise up, and no matter how much they try to cover it up and shield each other, they can’t avoid punishing the police, prosecutors, or judges who concealed it.

“Isn’t the law supposed to be fair?”

“Fair law? We call that utopia. But that can never exist.”

Lee Ji-soo smiled bitterly at Park Do-joon’s words, which sounded like a reprimand. He wasn’t wrong.

“First of all, the local police won’t try to investigate here to avoid their own punishment. There are also practical problems.”

“That’s right. We don’t even know where they are.”

Yoo Gi-tae said, lowering his voice again. “I asked the team members who went out on field duty to keep an eye out, but they said they couldn’t find them.”

“It’s probably because the distribution lines are different.”

“Distribution lines?”

“Yes, it’s a cruel but undeniable fact.”

Yoo Gi-tae looked uncomfortable at the term “distribution lines,” but he couldn’t deny that they were being treated like objects and traded below human standards.

“Realistically, in the case of women with disabilities who lack labor power, there’s no reason to keep them at a salt farm that produces salt.”

“But, Detective, this might sound bad, but don’t slaves have sexual desires? Wouldn’t they take them away to satisfy those desires?”

“That’s impossible. The very fact that you say that means you’re acknowledging human rights for slaves, but acknowledging human rights for slaves is fundamentally contradictory to the very word ‘slave.'”

“Ah…”

“So, what are these distribution lines?”

“Probably the entertainment district.”

Realistically, that’s the most likely possibility.

“Women are capable of having much more sex than men.”

No matter how capable a man is, it’s difficult to have more than two or three sexual encounters a day, even in his prime. However, in the case of women, records of comfort women in the past show that they received dozens, or even more than 100 men a day.

“Realistically, to make money, it’s more profitable to target a large number of people than to target a small number of people in a fixed location.”

“Hmm…”

Yoo Gi-tae and Lee Ji-soo both looked quite uncomfortable at those words.

“Well, I know it’s uncomfortable, but there’s no other way. That’s what profilers do.”

Humans want to turn away from uncomfortable and ugly places. That goes for everyone else as well.

“But if you can’t see it straight and realistically, you can’t clean it up either. Isn’t that exactly the situation we’re in now?”

“Well, that’s true.”

They recognized the problem, but the local police were gritting their teeth and pretending not to know. In times like these, someone has to be tough and look at it straight, or else the problem can’t be solved.

“If there’s no will to solve the problem, nothing will ever be solved.”

“Umm…”

“That’s why profilers get cursed at.”

In fact, many profilers are cursed at by the surrounding police for being ruthless. But isn’t the police force supposed to be an organization that ruthlessly solves problems in the first place?

“It seems like the local police have no intention of solving this problem, so we’ll have to solve it ourselves.”

“But we don’t have enough people.”

“No, in this case, it’s the opposite.”

“The opposite?”

“Yes, it’s not that we can’t solve it because we don’t have enough people. Once we blow up one thing, people will naturally be replenished.”

Not enough people? Isn’t that what the police always say? Even if the police had enough people to assign one officer per case, they’d still be leisurely cracking peanuts and saying, ‘We don’t have enough people.’

“As you know from leading the special investigation unit, if a case becomes an issue, the police… no, the government will have no choice but to replenish the personnel to solve this problem.”

“Well, that’s true.”

If that weren’t the case, the special investigation unit wouldn’t have been created in Shinan in the first place. It was created because Noh Hyung-jin blew up the slave problem in Shinan.

“So, we’ll have to shift our focus. And frankly, there haven’t been any achievements lately, right?”

Yoo Gi-tae flinched at those words.

“Huh? How did you know?”

In fact, the special investigation unit hasn’t had any achievements recently.

“Of course. The local police can’t block raids or provide raid information, but they can check the warrant application records, can’t they?”

“That’s…”

“No matter how special the investigation unit is, they can’t break into someone else’s house without a warrant.”

If some police officers hand over those warrant application records, what will the salt farm owners who use slaves do with them? Naturally, they’ll hide their slaves somewhere.

“And after that, it’s obvious.”

The slaves will be smuggled out in time, and then the raid will fizzle out.

“Currently, there’s no choice due to the limitations of the raid. Or should I say, there are limitations to the police’s raid methods?”

“Police raid methods?”

“When you guys conduct raids, don’t you look for people?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s why you’re failing. What you need to find isn’t people, but things.”

“Pardon?”

“People can be moved easily, but things can’t be moved easily.”

To be exact, they don’t want to bother moving such things.

A Profiler’s Calling