Busan City Establishes and Implements 'Protection and Support Action Plan for Civil Complaint Handlers'

Creating a Safe Civil Petition Environment

Establishing a Proper Civil Petition Culture

Busan City has established and is implementing the ‘Protection and Support Action Plan for Civil Petition Handling Officers’ to protect civil petition handlers from illegal acts by petitioners and to support victims.

Busan City Hall.

Recently, illegal acts such as verbal abuse, threats, sexual harassment, assault, and property damage by petitioners have been continuously occurring. According to a Busan City investigation, the number of illegal acts by petitioners reported in the city and its 16 autonomous districts and counties increased from 1,007 cases in 2019 to 2,303 cases in 2020, and 3,716 cases in 2021, with incidents continuing to occur recently.

For example, in March this year, a man in his 60s threw a mobile phone at a public official at an administrative welfare center in Seo-gu while intoxicated, hitting the official’s head. In January, a man in his 40s at an administrative welfare center in Buk-gu verbally abused a public official and threw objects, causing injuries requiring two weeks of medical treatment. The affected officials reported psychological shock and anxiety after the incidents, and some are known to have taken sick leave.

Accordingly, on May 17, the ‘Ordinance on the Protection and Support of Civil Petition Handling Officers in Busan Metropolitan City’ was enacted, led by Assemblyman Kang Mugil of the Busan Metropolitan Council. In line with this, Busan City has established and is implementing the ‘Protection and Support Action Plan for Civil Petition Handling Officers’ to concretely carry out the provisions stipulated in the ordinance.

The main contents of the action plan include: ▲expanding safety facilities and equipment in civil petition offices as a preventive measure, providing job training and preferential treatment in personnel matters, and offering opportunities for rest and mental healing to create a safe and happy working environment; ▲producing and distributing civil petition response guidelines (manuals), strengthening training to enhance the ability to respond to unusual petitions, and forming and operating an emergency response team to reinforce preparedness against illegal acts by petitioners; ▲actively supporting the physical and mental damages of the responsible officials by providing psychological counseling, medical expenses, appropriate rest, and, if necessary, legal response support and personnel measures.

On April 26, a simulated drill was conducted at the Happiness Civil Petition Office on the 2nd floor of Busan City Hall, assuming an actual situation. The scenario involved a petitioner verbally abusing and assaulting a public official, followed by property damage. The emergency response team was immediately activated and calmly carried out their assigned roles according to the guidelines (manual), including situation reporting, restraint, recording and audio recording, police notification, evacuation, and rescue. The drill also included the actual arrival of police officers and the handover of the petitioner to the police.

The simulated drill will be conducted regularly once each in the first and second halves of the year, and it is expected to enhance the ability to respond quickly and safely in real situations through these drills.

Conducted a simulated training assuming a real situation (police arriving and handing over).

Lee Su-il, Director of the Administrative Autonomy Bureau of Busan City, stated, “Illegal acts by petitioners not only cause physical and mental harm to civil petition handling officers but also lead to delays in petition processing and deterioration in the quality of civil petition services, ultimately harming the general public.” He added, “As illegal acts by petitioners have been continuously occurring recently, the enactment of the ordinance and the implementation of the action plan have established an institutional foundation to prevent and heal damages to civil petition handling officers. Busan City will faithfully implement this to ensure that civil petition handling officers perform their duties safely and diligently, providing high-quality civil petition services that satisfy citizens.” He also requested, “We ask citizens to cooperate in establishing a culture of respecting civil petition handling officers with mature civic awareness.”

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