Police, taxi drivers join forces to find missing people

230,000 Kakao T taxi drivers across the country to receive information of missing people from police

Taxis wait for passengers in front of Seoul Station on Dec. 28, 2020. (Yonhap)

South Korea’s taxi drivers and the police are joining forces to find missing people, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

In the event of a missing persons report, depending on the details and circumstances of the case, the police will first determine whether to dispatch a message to KaKao Mobility, the operator of Korea’s biggest taxi-hailing app Kakao T.

Once the police decide to do so, they will set the scope of the targeted search area and send a description of the missing persons to Kakao Mobility.

The app’s operator, upon receiving the message from the police, will then distribute the information to taxi drivers in the targeted region.

In order to encourage taxi drivers to cooperate, the police said it plans to show their gratitude by giving out rewards to drivers if their reports play a crucial role in finding the missing persons.

Thursday’s announcement from the police is a nationwide expansion of an existing system which has already been implemented in certain regions, such as in Gyeonggi Province, since 2016.

The number of Kakao T taxi drivers across the country is currently estimated at 230,000, accounting for 85 percent of the total.

“We expect that the cooperation with Kakao T taxi drivers will greatly help secure the safety of our citizens,” a National Police Agency official said.

By Kan Hyeong-woo (hwkan@heraldcorp.com)

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