Yongin Mayor, Police Chief, and Fire Chief Gather at 'Salon' for Citizen Safety

The Nation's First Local Government Collaboration Model... Discussions on Activating Citizen Safety Insurance
Exchanging Various Opinions on Party Banners Proliferation and Snow Removal Management

Key officials of major institutions in Yongin City, Gyeonggi Province, including the mayor, police chiefs, and fire chief, gathered in one place to discuss the city's safety issues.

On the 7th, Yongin City announced that it held a regular meeting called the 'Safety Culture Salon' at the city hall reception room, attended by Lee Sang-il, Mayor of Yongin, Kim Kyung-jin, Chief of Yongin Eastern Police Station, Lee Jong-gil, Chief of Yongin Western Police Station, and Ahn Ki-seung, Chief of Yongin Fire Station.

At the 'Safety Culture Salon' held on the 7th in the reception room of Yongin City Hall, An Gi-seung, Chief of Yongin Fire Station (from left), Lee Sang-il, Mayor of Yongin, Kim Kyung-jin, Chief of Yongin Eastern Police Station, and Lee Jong-gil, Chief of Yongin Western Police Station, joined hands to pledge cooperation for citizen safety.
[Photo by Yongin City]

The Safety Culture Salon is a meeting where key local institution heads communicate openly and discuss major issues to strengthen citizen safety. The city explained that this is a collaborative model attempted for the first time nationwide.

At the first meeting, a Yongin City official explained the operational direction of the Safety Culture Salon and introduced the Yongin Citizen Safety Insurance that the city will operate next year. Previously, the city had operated the citizen safety insurance for two years from 2018 but suspended it due to low utilization; it decided to resume it this year.

Mayor Lee Sang-il explained, "The citizen safety insurance, which will resume next year, will not only expand coverage but also widen the scope of beneficiaries to include foreigners and overseas Koreans, ensuring that benefits are evenly distributed to citizens." In response, Chief Lee Jong-gil proposed, "We will place Yongin Citizen Safety Insurance brochures at the traffic accident investigation units of police stations that handle actual traffic accident cases so that citizens involved in accidents can immediately claim insurance benefits." Mayor Lee also replied, "Since injury compensation will be provided to citizens who suffer accidents in school zones or silver zones or victims of sexual violence crimes, cooperation from the police stations responsible for these areas in promoting this will be very effective."

Regarding Ahn Ki-seung Chief’s opinion that "It is unfortunate that most fire damage victims are from vulnerable groups, and it would be good to support property damage as well," Mayor Lee responded, "Low-income groups often lack personal insurance, so damage from fires or accidents tends to be severe; we will consider supporting property damage as well."

Issues regarding political party banners were also discussed. Mayor Lee pointed out, "Political party banners with harsh expressions are being installed indiscriminately, causing citizens to frown, so improvement is necessary." Chief Lee agreed, saying, "The proliferation of political party banners is also dangerous from a traffic safety perspective," and added, "Banners posted near intersections or crosswalks hinder pedestrian safety."

The officials also discussed measures for personal mobility devices (PM) amid recent frequent traffic accidents and winter road management issues.

Chief Lee stated, "Although the police are cracking down on electric scooter riding safety, devices abandoned on streets or bus stops pose dangers, so joint measures such as collection by each institution are necessary." Chief Kim also suggested, "To deeply discuss safety and security issues of youths using PMs, participation from the Yongin Office of Education is needed." Accordingly, the officials agreed to propose the participation of Kim Hee-jung, Superintendent of Yongin Office of Education, starting from the second meeting to be held at Yongin Fire Station on January 4 next year.

Chief Lee also requested, "It would be good to actively respond to snow removal this year as well for citizen safety." Mayor Lee explained, "Snow removal is directly related to citizen safety. Last year, based on my idea, we introduced three sidewalk snow removal machines, which received great public response, so we will add 29 more this year."

Meanwhile, the officials plan to hold regular monthly meetings rotating among institutions, proposing various ideas and seeking solutions for citizen safety through joint cooperation.

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