Police releases emergency call response manual

"I`m in a house near Motgol playground. I`ve raped."

"Motgol playground?"

This is a part of questions and answers between a woman who called police on the phone to report her being raped and a person who received the call. It was a murder case of a serial killer Oh Won-chun. Before the victim lost grasp of the phone, the woman and the person who received her call talked for 80 seconds for 12 sets of Q&As, and nine were made by the receiver asking back what she already said. Had the receptionist not asked back but instead asked the features, clothing, way of speaking and location of the house of the rapist, police cold have found the location before the woman was killed. However, police did not have standard questionnaires for manuals.

For the first time, police will officially create a 112 emergency call response manual. On Monday, Police said it would distribute guidelines for 112 emergency call response on nationwide 112 centers and police stations. When the issue of manual absence was pointed out in August last year, the National Police Agency and some regional police agencies made a 40-page booklet, but it is the first time to make a manual covering details from registration to guidelines for instructions and treatment.

The Dong-A Ilbo analyzed conversation between the victim and Oh with corporal Jeong In-hwan who participated in making the manual, and saw how the results will be if the new manual is applied. This was heavily discussed at a two-week camp training among 13 emergency call receivers who stayed at a constabulary unit in Yongin at the end of July to make the manual.

① Applying the standard questionnaires

The manual for repeating questions reflected standard questions asking for the location of reporting and the features and clothing of the offender. The manual was made to ask information that can help police find the location the victim reports such as size of the room, color of the front door, and the features and clothing of the offender. For Oh`s case, if the receiver had asked accurately to find out "first floor of a multi-household building, 00 color front door and 00 color room door," and also spotted Oh`s appearance by finding "a partly bald 40-something man with Chinese accent," police could have found Oh`s house in early hunt.

② Securing victim`s safety as priority

In Oh`s case, the victim said she locked the door after Oh went out of the room. The receiver asked back, "You locked the door?" repeatedly. If the receiver first asked where the crime is being committed or whether the victim can escape to outside first, he or she could have guided the victim to see if there is additional lock system to prevent the offender from coming in, and calmed the victim that police would arrive soon.

③ The voice could no longer be heard, but the receiver kept on repeating `Hello`

The victim dropped the phone and screamed for more than six minutes, but police kept on asking for the address. The new manual classifies a sudden stop of voice of the victim as incomplete reporting and wrote one-page guideline for response. Jeong said, "If the victim is not in a situation to speak, it is one way to induce the person to knock on the phone to signal yes or no."

④ Systemizing instructions and search

Police failed an early search for the location as it ordered mobilization without reporting the place was inside a house. The new manual includes emergency house searching guidelines. If police, as the victim reported, first investigated inside the houses located 825 meters between the Motgol playground and Jidong Elementary school, and searched for houses where a 40-something man using Chinese lived, a faster hunt could have been possible.