The Metropolitan Police Department announced on the 26th that a 68-year-old man’s body, which was supposed to be handed over to his family at Tama Chuo Police Station, was mistakenly given to a funeral company and cremated. It is said that they failed to check the identification tags managing the bodies and confused it with another body. The station chief apologized to the family on the same day.
According to the Criminal Affairs Division, on July 25, two police officers in their 30s from the station’s Organized Crime Countermeasures Section attempted to hand over the body of an unclaimed 65-year-old man to a funeral company but mistakenly gave them the body of the 68-year-old man. The mix-up was discovered on August 23 during procedures to return the 68-year-old man’s body to his family.
The department stated that while they attach wristbands to stored bodies and place tags with names on the sheets wrapping the bodies, they neglected to confirm the identity when handing it over to the company. Additionally, regulations require a police inspector or higher-ranking investigative supervisor to be present during body handovers, but it was left to the two police officers. They are considering disciplinary action against the involved officers.
The head of the Criminal Affairs Division commented, “Mixing up bodies is unacceptable. We will thoroughly enforce confirmation procedures during handovers.”
