Police Issue Official Apology To Yoon Ji Oh For Failing To Provide Proper Witness Protection

The police have met with actress Yoon Ji Oh and formally apologized to her after she criticized them for failing to provide proper protection.

Yoon Ji Oh, who has been providing testimony to the police as a witness to the case around the late actress Jang Ja Yeon, created a petition on March 30 requesting an explanation and apology from the police for failing to provide proper protection to her as a witness of an investigation.

Through her petition, she explained that she had pressed the call button on the smart watch given to her by the police, but she did not receive any form of reply for over ten hours. The petition quickly gained traction and collected over 240,000 signatures.

Dongjak Police Station, which is charge of witness protection for Yoon Ji Oh, released an official statement on March 31 and said, “At approximately 12:15 a.m. KST, we visited Yoon Ji Oh and spoke with her for over an hour. We sincerely apologized to her for failing to provide proper protection and promised that it would not happen again.”

They explained that the smart watches they provide to victims or witnesses under their protection program are equipped with real-time location tracking and call functions. If the wearer places an emergency call, it is automatically logged into the 112 emergency call system. The police confirmed that Yoon Ji Oh initially activated the emergency call function on her smart watch at 5:55 a.m. KST on March 30 and proceeded to activate the function an additional two times, but her calls were not logged into the 112 system and she did not receive the help that is guaranteed to her under the protection program.

The police stated, “We are currently working with the company that created the smart watch to investigate why Yoon Ji Oh’s calls were not immediately logged into the 112 system. When calls are placed, a text message is also sent to the officer in charge, but they did not check the messages on time,” and added that they are investigating the police officer as well.

They explained that they have given Yoon Ji Oh a new smart watch that they tested in front of her, and they will be assigning her a team of female police officers to provide protection around the clock. They also stated that they will be moving Yoon Ji Oh to new living quarters and said, “A forensics team have investigated the claims Yoon Ji Oh made of mechanical sounds, falling ventilators, and an unknown liquid substance on her door. We will inform her as soon as results are out.”

Finally, the police stated, “We will strengthen our protective measures and communication routes to make sure Yoon Ji Oh, a witness to an important case, does not fear for her safety.”

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