The Crime Seoul Citizens Fear Most Is 'Assault and Injury'

Citizen Awareness Survey on the 2nd Anniversary of the Autonomous Police Committee Implementation

The type of crime and accident that Seoul citizens feel most anxious about was found to be 'assault and injury.'

The Seoul Metropolitan Autonomous Police Committee announced the results of the 'Seoul Autonomous Police Public Awareness Survey,' conducted on about 1,500 citizens, on the 13th to establish public safety policies that citizens need, marking two years since its implementation. This survey asked about awareness of the autonomous police, policies to strengthen tasks handled by the autonomous police, and citizen participation demands. It was conducted by Seoul City through Korea Research from the 16th to the 25th of last month, targeting 1,519 Seoul citizens aged 18 and over.

According to the survey results, the types of crimes and accidents that Seoul citizens usually feel anxious about were ▲assault and injury (public safety) ▲school violence and juvenile crime (protection of socially vulnerable groups) ▲motorcycle, electric kickboard, and other two-wheeled vehicle traffic violations (traffic safety).

In the public safety category, citizens felt anxious in the order of assault and injury (50.1%), traffic safety (41.6%), and sexual violence (26.7%). For crimes against socially vulnerable groups, school violence and juvenile crime (48.9%), sexual crimes (38.8%), and child abuse (24.2%) were considered serious. Traffic safety threats were identified as two-wheeled vehicle traffic violations such as motorcycles and electric kickboards (55.1%), drunk and unlicensed driving (43.2%), and speeding and signal violations (31.8%).

As priority projects to strengthen citizen safety, respondents cited the expansion of crime prevention facilities (public safety), prevention activities for sexual crimes and protection/support for victims (protection of socially vulnerable groups), and strengthening enforcement against drunk driving and traffic violations (traffic safety).

Regarding the operation of the Seoul Autonomous Police, 52.1% responded that it is doing well. Especially, in the effectiveness survey of major projects by category, the results showed high effectiveness with ▲improvement of children's school routes (traffic safety) at 82.5%, ▲construction of crime prevention infrastructure (public safety) at 82.2%, and ▲on-site registration projects such as fingerprint pre-registration (protection of socially vulnerable groups) at 81.2%.

The awareness of the autonomous police was 79.7%, an increase of 5.8 percentage points compared to last year (73.9%), with the main sources of awareness being TV (53.7%) and internet portal sites (42.2%).

When asked about the most important role of the Seoul Metropolitan Autonomous Police Committee, expanding communication channels to collect residents' opinions on local public safety issues (22.6%) and discovering local public safety issues and developing customized policies (22.1%) were the highest responses.

Kim Hak-bae, Chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Autonomous Police Committee, said, "Through this awareness survey, we were able to clearly understand citizens' perceptions and demands regarding the autonomous police," adding, "We will strive to become an autonomous police force loved by citizens by activating citizen participation and preparing supplementary measures to increase citizens' satisfaction with policies."

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