The State of Security Law Violations by the Private Security Businesses in Seoul and Countermeasures

Abstract

The private security industry in South Korea has grown rapidly since the cessation of the Korean War in 1953. The main duty of the private security officers in their beginning era was to simply protect the supplies of the U.S. military stationed in the country, but the number of people employed in the business has outgrown the number of police officers since 2001.

Despite the quantitative development of the private security industry, the quality of the services provided by the businesses has not advanced sufficiently except for a few number of specialized areas because of the perception that the police should be in charge of the overall security of society in addition to the low crime rate in the country and the lack of safety awareness by citizens. This has also resulted in an overflow of under-qualified businesses. Moreover, the lack of sense of duty among the employees of private security has resulted in violations of the existing laws and regulations, which has hindered further development of the industry. In this study, the current state of the private security companies registered at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency is examined in addition to the details of the Private Security Act and its breaches by the security businesses in Seoul area during 2013. With a basis on the findings, the causes for the violations are assessed and prevention measures are suggested.