My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 575

“Just because the public officials who are running around in the front are good doesn’t mean the guys in the back are good too.”

Even if they want to be good, criminals constantly tempt and try to win them over. Especially people in positions involving money, it’s not easy to resist such temptations.

Even if they don’t succumb themselves, if the higher-ups succumb and issue orders, there’s no way to stop it unless they risk their livelihood to make a declaration of conscience or blow the whistle. The best they can hope for is that the task gets passed to someone else, and the worst is demotion.

“I guess that’s true.”

The price of fire safety equipment is more than three times higher than other construction materials, so there are plenty of guys who don’t want to use it.

“Yeah, and tracking that isn’t difficult.”

Of course, to track it properly, you have to fill out all sorts of documents, report, and get permission. But just because you don’t have that permission doesn’t mean you can’t track it.

“And fortunately, the computer system is quite well-organized.”

“But you don’t know who you’re tracking, do you?”

Park Do-joon shrugged at those words.

“Does it matter? Most tracking is one-off anyway.”

“Ah!”

Even if they are suicide hopefuls, once you track them, it’s over. If someone attempts suicide frequently, they just put them in a mental hospital; they don’t constantly track them. In other words, if there is someone who is being tracked continuously, there is a high possibility that they are the target.

“If they’ve come all the way here, they’re really chasing after them relentlessly.”

A small store in the middle of a desolate field. If they can’t avoid being tracked even there, there was only one possibility.

“Let’s see who’s tracking them so diligently.”

Fortunately, accessing the tracking system and checking who is tracking whom wasn’t difficult. Since the police and fire department use it together, all you have to do is check the suspicious tracking records.

“This… is suspicious, right?”

“It’s not just suspicious; it’s pretty much definitely this, isn’t it?”

Over the past four months, three people have been location-tracked more than ten times. Even at most, it’s rare for one person to be tracked more than three times, and considering that time frame is over several months, it was certain that someone was checking on someone who was on the run.

“Ji Jin-tae and Go Min-sang. And Lee Cheol-sang.”

The names of three people came up, and they were tracking them alternately. They probably knew they were together and were alternating the tracking to avoid being noticed as much as possible. Of course, that doesn’t mean the records disappear from the computer system.

“Who tracked them?”

“We need to find that out first.”

You can know who the target of the tracking is, but finding out who tracked them requires a separate investigation and expert analysis. Finding the user who accessed it at headquarters isn’t difficult, but that part isn’t Park Do-joon’s area.

“But it’s not these three.”

Once they were identified, finding out about them wasn’t difficult.

Park Do-joon started checking the records. And before long, he could see where those three came from and what kind of people they were.

“Wow, this is crossing the line?”

“Crossing the line? In what way?”

Ji Jin-tae, Go Min-sang, and Lee Cheol-sang were all from the same school. Well, that was expected, given that they were always together.

“They all entered in different years.”

“The schools are different?”

“It’s not just that. Look. Based on the year of admission, the year of graduation is one year later.”

“Oh? Now that you mention it.”

Lee Ji-soo, who had only paid attention to the school and not the graduation year, tilted her head when she saw that.

“Why is this?”

“They probably went to juvenile detention.”

“Juvenile detention? Ah, I see. Because the records are sealed.”

Juvenile detention records are automatically sealed. Legally, it’s said to be to prevent a minor’s future from being determined and falling into ruin.

To see it, you have to get separate approval through the court.

“But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to guess.”

Right now, the graduation year is one year later. That can only be seen as meaning they were delayed because they went to juvenile detention.

“And look at the name of the school they graduated from.”

“Gamhae Boys’ High School, right?”

“Yeah, and Gamhae Boys’ High School is a juvenile detention center. Juvenile detention centers aren’t prisons; they’re schools.”

“Ah! That’s right. I forgot. But I didn’t know Gamhae Boys’ High School was a juvenile detention center.”

“Actually, it’s common not to know.”

First of all, the police don’t get involved up to the juvenile detention stage, so they don’t know where they go. Secondly, juvenile detention centers are legally places of education, not punishment.

When people hear about juvenile detention, they think of a kind of prison, but that’s a juvenile prison, and actual juvenile detention centers are schools and are run as schools.

Third, since juvenile detention centers are schools in the first place, if the school name is rumored to be a juvenile detention center, there are severe disadvantages to graduation, so the government constantly tries not to reveal the actual names of such juvenile detention centers.

So, in reality, most people don’t know the official school name of the juvenile detention center. Of course, you can find it if you try, but there’s no reason for the average person to know it unless they’re a hiring manager.

“If juvenile detention is a school, why is graduation late?”

“The number of days of attendance must be the problem.”

To move up a grade, you basically have to meet the number of days of attendance required by law. In fact, it’s not that strict, so you can usually meet that number of days of attendance.

“But if you run away from home like it’s a meal, don’t go to school, and cause a big accident and even go to trial, you can’t meet the number of days of attendance.”

“Ah, I didn’t think of that.”

If you don’t meet the number of days of attendance, you can’t complete the grade, even if you go to juvenile detention. During the trial period, the school will 100% suspend or expel you.

“Furthermore, in our country, they try not to punish teenagers if possible.”

But if they committed a crime serious enough to go to juvenile detention, it means they committed a crime that the court can’t cover. Even being delayed by a year or more means they were in juvenile detention for more than a year.

If it was only a few months, they would have been transferred from the juvenile detention center to another school.

No matter how juvenile detention centers are run as schools, they are still detention facilities.

You can’t keep them locked up to graduate them here when their sentence is over.

“Looking at that, these three guys must have a considerable criminal record.”

They must have a very serious criminal record. And such guys are the top priority for recruitment by violent organizations. Because they are used to crime, they tend to do whatever they are told.

“Those guys are scared and running away?”

“Yeah.”

Guys who are used to violence or crime are running away? That means the scale of the crime is bigger than you think.

“All three are twenty-one years old. Just about the age to be a rookie.”

You can say that the age when they graduate from high school, join a gang, work as so-called errand boys, and then get properly recognized as members and start working is twenty-one to twenty-two years old.

Of course, the age varies slightly depending on when they join, but these kids who commit crimes to the point of going to juvenile detention are managed by the gangs to bring them into their organization.

“But usually, even if you give them work, you don’t give them important stuff, right?”

No matter how much they are rookies and recognized as so-called family members, they are still immature kids. They don’t suddenly assign them important tasks like, ‘You go take someone out and go to jail for me.’ To do that, you have to be at least four or five years in.

“So, they wouldn’t be assigned anything dangerous.”

But they ran away anyway? Moreover, from an organization they joined knowing they were joining a gang, with their own dreams and hopes?

“Is it murder?”

“No way.”

The many crimes that come to mind when you think of gangs are murder. Even if they are immature kids who don’t know the ways of the world, they wouldn’t run away just because they were asked to commit murder.

“The organization wouldn’t bother tracking them down either.”

Because there’s no reason to blab about it. They knew something they shouldn’t have known. That’s how you have to see it.

“Well, let’s think about that problem later.”

We’re almost there now. Tracking them wasn’t difficult. Stupidly, they left their phones on while running away.

“Well, these guys are stupid.”

They may think they’re smart, but they don’t know the ways of the world. And these days, kids are so addicted to their phones that they can’t even think of turning them off and running away.

“They’re in Goseong now? They’ve gone far in the meantime.”

As much as an hour and a half away by car from the last crime scene. They must have run away like crazy when they realized they were being tracked.

“Let’s catch them and ask them.”

Park Do-joon smiled as he got up from his seat.

A restaurant in Goseong. Three young men were frantically stuffing food into their mouths. And watching them, the owner clicked his tongue and handed them water.

“No, everyone, eat slowly.”

The owner looked pitifully at the three people eating so urgently.

The three people who were shoving bibimbap [Korean mixed rice dish] into their mouths snatched it and drank it straight down, then shoved more food into their mouths.

“No one’s chasing you, people. Anyone would think you haven’t eaten in three days.”

At those words, the three people flinched for a moment. But soon, they started shoveling rice into their mouths again.

“Oh my, what happened to you three?”

The owner clicked his tongue as he watched them, not even thinking that the three people would run away. At that moment, the door opened.

“Welcome.”

The man turned his head to receive the new customers.

“Police.”

Park Do-joon approached him and showed his ID.

“What’s going on?”

The owner tilted his head as he looked at it. There was no reason to show an ID if they were just coming to eat.

“I’m looking for someone.”

Saying that, Park Do-joon looked inside.

‘There’s no reason to look.’

There were only three customers. And only three men.

Park Do-joon gestured to Lee Ji-soo and the other police officers to block the entrance and approached the three men.

“Ji Jin-tae, Go Min-sang, Lee Cheol-sang, right?”

“……”

“Police. We received a report of eating without paying, so please come with us.”

In the worst-case scenario, they might rush to escape, so Park Do-joon subtly took a step back, preparing to fight. But fortunately, that didn’t happen.

“Sob……”

“Are you really the police?”

“That’s right, but?”

“Wahhhh!”

“Please arrest us, please.”

The three people were crying their eyes out.

“Excuse me?”

“Are you really the police?”

“Please arrest us. I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Park Do-joon could only stare blankly at the three people in the unexpected situation.