Police State That Delayed Response To Yoon Ji Oh's Emergency Call Was Due To Equipment Misuse

On April 23, SBS reported that the police had finished their investigation into why they did not immediately respond to Yoon Ji Oh’s emergency calls.

In March, Yoon Ji Oh created a petition requesting an explanation and apology from the police for failing to provide proper witness protection. She stated that she had pressed the call button on the smart watch given to her by the police for emergencies, but did not receive any reply for over 10 hours.

Dongjak Police Station, who is in charge of Yoon Ji Oh’s witness protection, issued an apology on March 31 and promised to conduct an investigation.

The smart watch is equipped with real-time location tracking and call functions, and emergency calls are automatically logged into the 112 emergency call system. In their official apology, the police confirmed that Yoon Ji Oh had initially activated the emergency call function on the watch at 5:55 a.m. KST on March 30 and activated it again two more times after that, but the calls were not logged into the 112 system. The police stated that they would be working with the company that created the smart watch to investigate why this was the case.

According to SBS’s new report, the smart watch company concluded as a result of their analysis that Yoon Ji Oh pressed the emergency call button for less than 1.5 seconds the first two times she called. This was not long enough to send the emergency signal to the system. The third time she called, she pressed the button for longer than 1.5 seconds, but pressed the power button at the same time and the call was canceled right away.

A source from the police stated, “There were no mechanical problems with the smart watch that was given to Ms. Yoon. When we gave her the smart watch last month, we explained to her how to use it.”

TV Chosun also released a report that quoted a police source as saying that after checking the CCTV footage, they found no evidence of attempted trespassing in Yoon Ji Oh’s home. About the noise that Yoon Ji Oh reported hearing, the source stated, “The room is surrounded by cement. There is a septic tank that is running, so when the boiler comes on, you can hear a mechanical sound.”

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