A 20-year-old woman named Ayaka Okazaki from Kawasaki City was tragically murdered despite having reported stalking incidents to the police from her ex-boyfriend, 28-year-old Hidetaka Shirai. On April 4, the Kanagawa Prefectural Police acknowledged that there were failures in their organizational response to the case, stating that their system for addressing stalking incidents had become ineffective.
Okazaki had reached out to her local police station a total of nine times between December 9 and December 20 of last year, during which she expressed her concerns about Shirai’s behavior. However, the officers who handled her reports underestimated the level of danger she was in. Furthermore, after she went missing, the police failed to take opportunities to investigate the situation as a potential crime.
This report aims to delve deeper into the findings of the investigation and the implications for police procedures in handling such serious cases.
Source: www3.nhk.or.jp