Small-Scale Crowd Events Also to Be Managed... Government Aims to Eliminate Blind Spots in Crowd Safety

Ministry of the Interior and Safety Launches Prevention System for Local Governments
Standardized Guidelines to Be Established for Festivals with Fewer Than 1,000 Participants
Procedures to Be Detailed from Pre-Event Meetings to On-Site Response

The government is refining its management system for crowd disaster incidents. While responses to large-scale events are governed by the Disaster and Safety Act, smaller events with fewer than 1,000 participants are managed differently according to the ordinances of each local government. The aim is to reduce blind spots in crowd management.

According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on April 20, the National Disaster Management Research Institute has recently begun discussions to establish a crowd disaster prevention system for local governments.

Police officers patrolling in Itaewon alley, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, in preparation for a mass gathering incident. Photo by Yonhap News.

Following the Itaewon disaster in 2022, the government pushed for amendments to the Disaster and Safety Act. It addressed issues such as the lack of responsibility for events with no official organizer, and the unclear authority and obligations of local governments and police. During this process, crowd incidents were classified as a type of disaster, and the responsibility of local government heads for safety management was stipulated in law.

However, local festivals and other small-scale events with fewer than 1,000 participants, which do not fall under the scope of the Disaster and Safety Act, remain in a blind spot. In Seoul, where small and medium-sized festivals are frequent, the city has revised its ordinances to operate safety management plans for crowd events based on the number of participants, location, and other factors. In contrast, other regions often act according to central government guidelines depending on the situation.

To address this, the National Disaster Management Research Institute plans to develop standardized crowd safety management guidelines that can be utilized by local governments. The crowd management systems and operational standards of the central government and Seoul will serve as references.

In particular, the guidelines will subdivide procedures for pre-event meetings among agencies, safety inspections, cooperation systems, and on-site response protocols. This will include models for separating entrances and exits at event venues, plans for controlling bottleneck areas, and guidelines for the deployment of safety personnel. The research institute explained that this approach is intended not to rely solely on the autonomous responses of individual local governments, stating, "This is a process to fill institutional gaps and minimize disparities in local government compliance."

A technology-based crowd management plan linked to the guidelines and standard ordinances will also be established. The goal is to predict risks associated with crowd density and to enable prompt crowd control, including dispersal, in the event of an incident. For example, at last month’s BTS concert in Gwanghwamun, Jongno-gu utilized smart Internet of Things (IoT) technology. By collecting Wi-Fi signals emitted from visitors’ smartphones, real-time crowd measurement was possible.

At the national level, a separate policy council is also being operated to refine management plans. Through amendments to the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety has significantly strengthened the role of local governments in preventing crowd disasters. In February, the ministry convened a policy council on crowd disaster management with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the police, the fire agency, 17 provincial governments, and the autonomous districts of Seoul.

At the meeting, officials called for strengthening the detailed responsibilities of local governments, including field surveys, emergency safety inspections, safety orders, event suspensions, and recommendations for crowd dispersal. This year, a four-step, prevention-oriented crowd management system—comprising status surveys, plan formulation, pre-inspections, and monitoring and response—will be established. Based on this, key management areas will be selected, and an inter-agency cooperation system for on-site response will be developed.

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