My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 63

“The police usually tell you to go home, rest, and report it tomorrow in these situations.”

And after that, even if you go to the hospital for a checkup, they won’t find any date rape drugs in your system.

“Would a victim with that experience trust the police and report being threatened?”

“Ah, I see.”

2.4 million won.

It’s not a small amount, but it’s definitely not enough to gamble on having faith in the untrustworthy police.

“Most of these cases are swept under the rug like this.”

When people calculate their safety, distrust of the police outweighs the money, so they inevitably accept the loss.

“Oh? I’ve never thought of it that way.”

“Because you’re a police officer. You don’t know much about people’s psychology.”

‘That’s why the police get criticized.’

Without giving victims the belief that the police will protect them, they avoid responsibility by saying they didn’t report it or acted according to regulations when things get serious.

In fact, there are no regulations for this kind of problem. There’s no regulation to take them to the hospital immediately when an incident occurs, so the police can avoid responsibility by saying they followed the regulations.

In reality, the police can’t interfere in civil matters between parties.

Of course, if you dig into it, it becomes a criminal matter, but interpreting that is solely the police’s choice.

“Probably the rest of the cases were handled in a similar way.”

“It’s strange.”

“What is?”

“No, it’s just that you’re the only one explaining why these methods have continued without being eradicated.”

“Well, do you think they want to accept that upstairs [referring to superiors or higher-ups]?”

In Korea, most unsolved cases happen not because they don’t know, but because they’re too lazy.

“So, what should we do about this?”

“Let’s throw out some bait.”

“Some bait?”

“Yes, humans always strive to climb up.”

Park Do-joon pointed to the sky and chuckled.

# Report to the Police Station, Tip-off to the Media

“A reporter you know? Senior, why all of a sudden? Are you interested in the media?”

“No, that’s not it. I just need some bait to track the case.”

Park Do-joon went to Jung Yi-yeon to ask if she knew any reporters. He’s a police officer, so he can’t easily contact reporters directly.

“So, officially, it has to look like the media found out and approached first.”

“Ah, so…?”

“Yeah, I’ll leak some information, but you have to make it seem like you found it out yourself.”

“Isn’t that illegal? You had a big fight about that before, Senior.”

“It’s not illegal. The police aren’t even aware of the situation yet.”

In other words, since there’s no internal data, it’s not like he’s leaking internal data.

“Besides, this is a problem that needs to be solved even by leaking internal data.”

“Um, I understand what you mean. A reporter I know… Do you have any, Senior?”

“Do you think I would?”

He’s a rookie police officer. Of course, he didn’t have time to build connections with reporters.

‘And I don’t want to get involved with those reporter bastards.’

For Park Do-joon, reporters weren’t welcome people. That’s because they’re not interested in the investigation, but in the number of views [clicks or readership].

So, they write recklessly if it’s stimulating, regardless of whether it’s confidential or not.

The problem is that Park Do-joon has to think about how the criminal will react when they see that.

Running away is the best-case scenario, and in extreme cases, they commit additional crimes, so Park Do-joon didn’t get close to reporters even before the regression.

‘But the situation is what it is.’

Since it’s difficult to proceed with the case properly within the police, external stimulation is needed.

“So, the media.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think I know any? I’m a rookie lawyer too.”

“You might not, but your father would.”

“Ehe. You said you didn’t want to meet him?”

“What can’t I do when people’s lives are at stake?”

Jung Yi-yeon nodded at those words.

“I’ll ask my father.”

And soon after, her father sent a reporter from a famous news agency.

“I’m Kim Geun-chan from Dongbu Ilbo [a fictional newspaper name].”

The man who handed him his business card said with an interesting expression.

“I was asked to dig into a case.”

“It’s not about digging into it. It’s not even a case that can be done in the first place.”

“Yes? Then…?”

“Just contact the prosecution appropriately and show that you’re tracking the case.”

“The prosecution? What case is it?”

“It’s human trafficking.”

“Human trafficking? Does that still exist in Korea?”

“Yes, it does. To be exact, I think they kidnap people and force them into prostitution.”

Kim Geun-chan’s face lit up with curiosity at those words.

“There’s still such a case?”

“There still is.”

‘There will be in the future too.’

Since the police don’t respond properly, one of the cases that isn’t eradicated even in the future is this kind of case.

And most of them don’t end well.

Most of these human trafficking cases end with the death of the missing person. It’s inevitable because they’ll report it the moment they’re released.

‘So, the tendency of the violent organization is important.’

Whether they’ll just end the case with kidnapping and threats, or make a really extreme choice.

‘And this case is the latter.’

Of course, they all make threats. Because they’re a criminal organization.

But they went to the family instead of the person involved. It’s a pretty extreme choice. Of course, that’s not proof that they’re willing to commit murder.

However, the more extreme the group, the greater the possibility of an extreme outcome.

“So, you’re saying they’re kidnapping people and forcing them into prostitution?”

“Yes, and the method is to prevent the police from investigating by saying they ran away with the money.”

“No, don’t the families know about that?”

Kim Geun-chan tilted his head. He couldn’t understand it from his point of view, but Park Do-joon was so sure.

“The families don’t know. They can’t know.”

“Why?”

“Logically, you can’t tell your family that you’re prostituting yourself.”

There are many women who work in the entertainment industry. But do they really tell their families that they work in the entertainment industry?

“They usually don’t tell.”

And most of them work in areas that have nothing to do with them. Of course. If they work near their home and meet someone they know, it’s a disaster.

“Most of them work in places where they have no ties, so their families don’t know about it.”

Therefore, reports of their disappearance are inevitably delayed.

Even if a report is filed, the police investigation ends the moment the store says they ran away with the money.

“Hmm……”

Kim Geun-chan was quite troubled by Park Do-joon’s words. He had never thought of such a possibility.

“You’re asking me to write an article about that.”

“Not yet.”

“Not yet?”

“In the worst-case scenario, the criminal group is likely to kill the victims and run away.”

If that happens, there will be no way to catch them.

“So, you can use that information to approach an appropriate prosecutor.”

“A prosecutor? Why?”

“Because prosecutors want to get promoted. If they investigate a case that people don’t recognize and get it in the media, that prosecutor’s future will be bright.”

Kim Geun-chan had a strange expression at those words.

That’s definitely true. It’s rare for a prosecutor to be in the media. Even if they’re in the media, it’s usually in a bad way. Or they’re in the media for political reasons.

Either way, it’s not a good situation for the prosecutor.

“But isn’t this situation a little different?”

“That’s for sure.”

If a prosecutor investigates a case that other people don’t know about, especially a human trafficking case, and gets it in the media, they can receive public support.

“But in that case, can’t Detective Park Do-joon go directly?”

“Then I’ll be a traitor.”

“A traitor?”

“This case was caused by police incompetence and corruption. How many people in the police will be hurt if this case is made public?”

“Ah……”

Probably the local police chief will have to take off his clothes [resign], and all the police officers who were dispatched will be subject to criminal punishment.

‘Even if it’s me, not yet.’

Han Seong-gi is a problem within the team, and it’s not that Park Do-joon blew the whistle, but that he was caught doing something stupid on his own.

On the other hand, this case is that Park Do-joon directly stabbed the prosecutor, and if that happens, the police will have no choice but to brand Park Do-joon as a complete traitor.

‘And they’ll try to get rid of me by any means.’

If necessary, they’ll frame him and try to cut him off.

“So, it has to be dug in from the outside.”

“You don’t intend to protect the police.”

“There’s no reason to.”

If the police don’t do their job properly, the people will suffer. If they were unfairly victimized without knowing, it would be understandable, but ignoring these reports, even though dozens of reports have been filed with the police and they can only know the possibility of threats experientially, the only cause that can be considered is corruption.

“Is that so? Then how should I recognize this case? If this case is investigated, I’ll be subject to investigation too.”

If they kidnap and imprison women and force them into prostitution, the case will probably become serious.

“You can say you found out on the internet. There are job search sites on the internet.”

People don’t know it well, but there are job search sites that recruit such female employees. If people who went to work for one of those companies keep disappearing, that’s it.

‘Maybe Han Gyu-ri isn’t the only victim.’

It doesn’t matter if there’s only Han Gyu-ri anyway. Then you just have to save that person.

“I understand what you mean.”

Kim Geun-chan nodded.

“This case seems to be surprisingly interesting.”

***

Kim Geun-chan went to see a prosecutor he knew. In fact, there was no need to look for anyone. His older brother was a prosecutor.

“Human trafficking? Kidnapping and prostitution?”

Kim Geun-chan’s older brother, Kim Geun-woo, asked again as if to confirm.

“Yeah. Hyung [Korean term for older brother, used by males], there are such cases, right?”

“Hmm, that’s true.”

Kim Geun-woo nodded. Nowadays, a considerable number of prostitution businesses have been converted to voluntary prostitution.

Of course, methods such as deceiving women or saddling them with debt are used in the process, so it can’t be said to be 100% correct, but at least there are almost no places where people are kidnapped, imprisoned, and forced into prostitution like in the past.

“Almost none.”

But ‘almost’ doesn’t mean ‘all.’

In other words, such cases still occur occasionally in a very small number of cases.

“Hmm……”

Kim Geun-woo nodded at Kim Geun-chan’s words.

“So, are you sure?”

“The tip itself seems certain. However, it seems that the police are not investigating properly.”

“The police? Well, it’s not like those bastards have had that problem for a year or two.”

Kim Geun-woo also nods as if he knows. The police pretend not to know about crimes if you fill their pockets generously.

“Why don’t you try this, Hyung? Hyung, you said you wanted to advance into politics, right?”

“Um… I want to, but I haven’t had a chance.”

Kim Geun-woo is a political prosecutor. He wanted to go into politics if he had the chance, but unfortunately, he didn’t have the chance. First of all, to become a political prosecutor, you have to be good at riding factions.

But Kim Geun-woo failed to ride a faction. To be exact, he rode a faction, but it happened to be a rotten rope. Because of that, his life as a chief prosecutor was about to end.