[In-Depth Review] A Health Crisis Is Also a Public Security Crisis

Professor Kim Do-woo, Department of Police Science, College of Law, Gyeongnam National University

As the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) prolongs, public anxiety is reaching its peak. Despite the World Health Organization (WHO) and foreign media introducing South Korea's rapid early testing and strict quarantine system as a model case for infectious disease response, these fears are not easily alleviated. In particular, this fear hits socially vulnerable groups even harder. Daily wage workers who live day-to-day face immediate threats to their livelihoods, and the economic downturn caused by social distancing has become an especially difficult time for small business owners and micro-entrepreneurs. Moreover, as news of domestic confirmed cases continues to emerge, hatred and exclusion toward infected individuals or specific regions are becoming more pronounced.

As social unrest continues and the economic recession persists, crime patterns have also changed significantly. With the decrease in foot traffic, violent crimes including serious offenses have noticeably declined, but thefts and fraud cases, including scams related to mask sales, have surged, and traffic accidents, including drunk driving incidents, have also increased. Generally, during economic downturns, people develop a psychological tendency to seek financial compensation, and criminals exploit this psychology to deceive victims. Additionally, selective police sobriety checkpoints due to COVID-19 can be linked to the rise in drunk driving accidents. The deep-seated fear that COVID-19 spreads through public transportation leads people to avoid buses and taxis, and a complacent belief that sobriety checks will not be conducted has taken hold in public sentiment.

In this way, COVID-19 is both a public health crisis and a security crisis. Even in such circumstances, it is important to make the best efforts to respect individual freedom, equality, and human rights. Under normal conditions, measures such as quarantine, isolation, and contact tracing?actions that could be considered human rights violations?become necessary to control the public. Although these measures are legitimate law enforcement under the Infectious Disease Prevention Act, without sufficient explanation of their validity and support for living expenses to compensate for losses caused by control measures, it would be difficult for the public to accept them easily.

Another point to keep in mind is the anxiety and fear stemming from misinformation or ignorance about infectious diseases. The side effects of the infodemic related to COVID-19 threaten lives, including through cluster infections. To reduce social unrest, accurate information delivery by health authorities is essential. Health authorities and local governments must transparently disclose information related to COVID-19 to prevent excessive fear and unnecessary misunderstandings. Efforts should be made to correct social confusion through thorough verification of the truthfulness of unconfirmed facts.

COVID-19 is not a problem that can be resolved in a short period. Each time infectious disease crises such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) have occurred, the limitations of the response system have been clearly revealed. Although a rapid and strict response system was established after the 2015 MERS outbreak, this COVID-19 crisis has exposed areas that still need improvement, such as masks, medical equipment, and negative pressure isolation rooms. The police's infectious disease response manual has not changed much compared to the MERS crisis. For example, in the case where Shincheonji church members refused to enter a community treatment center and caused disturbances, the police were criticized for their passive response because the conditions for arresting them as caught-in-the-act offenders were not met. Even if they were arrested as caught-in-the-act offenders, the lack of quarantine facilities within police agencies to isolate them is also problematic. This crisis should serve as an opportunity to thoroughly reorganize and strengthen the police's infectious disease crisis response system; otherwise, the vicious cycle of new infectious diseases will inevitably repeat.

Kim Do-woo, Professor, Department of Police Science, College of Law, Gyeongnam National University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.