Photo/Illutration A cell at the Fukushima Police Station of the Osaka prefectural police in 2016 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

OSAKA--Osaka prefectural police sent to prosecutors papers on three Fukushima Police Station officers who are suspected of falsifying documents about a murder suspect who killed himself while in custody.

Prefectural police have admonished 11 officers over their failure to keep close watch over the man and are also imposing disciplinary measures against seven officers, including the police station chief.

The moves come on the heels of an investigative report released on Dec. 14 by prefectural police that found station officers had attempted to cover up their failure to properly check up on the man.

The report said officers neglected to frequently patrol his cell, despite receiving information that suggested he would try to kill himself.

Makoto Hisata, who heads the police affairs department, led the three-month investigation into the man’s death and said it “could have been prevented if officers became aware of (what was happening) at some point.”

“Had officers patrolled the cell as scheduled shortly before the suicide, they probably would have noticed early on,” Hisata said on Dec. 14.

His report also found insufficient cooperation between the station and the prefectural police, which hampered the ability of officers to prevent the suspect from killing himself.

But Hisata said there was no “systematic” attempt at a cover-up.

National Police Agency Commissioner General Yasuhiro Tsuyuki said he has ordered all prefectural police departments to conduct emergency inspections of their detention spaces to prevent similar incidents from happening.

“I have deep regrets about this case and have taken it seriously,” he told a Dec. 15 news conference.

According to the investigative report released by prefectural police, Fukushima Police Station officers found Rin Takai, 28, hanging in his cell at the station on Sept. 1 and transported him to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Takai had been rearrested on suspicion of murdering a woman in Takatsuki in the prefecture and attempting to fraudulently collect insurance money.

Police found Takai hanging by a makeshift rope made of torn-up T-shirts at 7:02 a.m. on Sept. 1. He was alone in the cell that measured 5 square meters.

Two days before his death, staff found a note written by Takai suggesting he would kill himself.

But they did not step up their risk assessment of how closely he should be monitored from medium to the highest level.

The station chief did order officers to increase their night patrols and check on the suspect five times in an hour.

However, the night before his death, officers only checked on him 15 times over 10 hours instead of the scheduled 50 inspections.

Officers at the Fukushima station created documents that greatly exaggerated the frequency with which they patrolled and visited the cell and stamped the document, according to the report.

While the documents said officers patrolled seven times between 6 a.m. and 6:59 a.m., security camera footage revealed that they did not do these patrols, the report said.

The report said the officers explained they were too busy with other tasks, such as preparing meals, to conduct all 50 scheduled patrols.

The last time an officer checked if the suspect was alive was 6:36 a.m., when they served him a cup of tea. It was not counted as a routine patrol.

Police also found torn-up T-shirts inside a box where the suspect stored his personal belongings. The box was located outside the suspect’s cell.

Under the rules, officers were supposed to check the box at least twice a month, but they had stopped doing so in August, the report said.

The report said the station officers falsified a document about the T-shirts the suspect is believed to have used to kill himself.

In the document, the station officers said they checked the box containing the suspect’s personal belongings on Aug. 26, six days before his death, and they did not find anything unusual.

But the investigative report said they neglected to check the box.

The officers only checked inside the box after the man died and found four ripped-up T-shirts.

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