Employees look at CCTV camera images on screens to react to crimes, incidents and fire emergencies at the CCTV monitoring center in Seoul’s Gangnam Ward on Jan. 2, 2023. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul city government will increase the number of surveillance cameras in public parks and hiking trails throughout the capital to reduce crime blind spots, Mayor Oh Se-hoon said Wednesday, responding to a recent spike in violent crimes in public places.
Recently, knife rampages and other violent crimes have occurred one after another in Seoul, escalating fears among citizens.
Last week, a jobless man raped and murdered a woman on a Mount Gwanak hiking trail in southern Seoul, confessing to police later that he chose the location of his crime considering the absence of surveillance cameras.
Oh declared the plan to increase surveillance cameras while presiding over a meeting of heads of ward offices and security-related municipal officials to discuss ways to enhance the safety of citizens.
“Seoul was famous as a city where women could feel safe walking alone. If indiscriminate crimes continue, Seoul’s image of safety could be tarnished, leading to a weakening of national competitiveness,” the mayor said.
“The confession by the Mount Gwanak murder suspect means that it is important to eliminate crime blind spots through the installation of CCTV cameras and patrols,” he said, vowing to swiftly increase cameras in parks and hiking trails after extensive field inspections by ward offices.
Oh also said his government plans to install CCTV cameras in all subway cabins by next year.
In addition, the so-called “safe village sheriff” system, in which groups of two people, mostly former policemen and martial arts practitioners, conduct patrols and crime prevention activities in their neighborhoods, will be expanded from the current 15 wards to all of the city’s 25 wards, the city government said.
(Yonhap)
