Seoul making moves to rein in increasing subway crimes

In this photo from 2016, at Gwanghwamun Station on Seoul Metro Line 5, a stairway mural encourages subway patrons to report secret filming to police. Newsis

By Ko Dong-hwan

Seoul Metro has started upgrading subway stations and increasing monitoring inside the stations to prevent crimes in the facilities that have been rising in recent years.

The authority started increasing hours for patrols in subway stations, installing more safety mirrors, designating more safety zones within stations and installing more security cameras in subway carriages.

Safety mirrors are large concave mirrors installed around escalators where perverts have been reported secretly filming upskirt videos. The authority in 2020 tested and proved the mirrors' effectiveness by installing eight at Jamsil Station on lines 2 and 8 and Garak Market Station on Line 8 for three months. During the period, no sexual offenses involving secret filming were reported there.

As of March this year, 60 safety mirrors have been installed in 26 stations around the city.

Seventy-nine safety zones have also been designated in 40 stations so far, where people receive greater visibility under brighter lighting, more concentrated monitoring by security cameras and a phone booth for emergency use.

The authority has also increased daily patrols by subway police inside Gangnam Station on Line 2 and the Shinbundang Line, Express Bus Terminal Station on lines 3, 7 and 9 and Sadang Station on lines 2 and 4, where the most crimes have been reported. Experienced subway cops monitoring inside stations say they can discern criminals from normal subway patrons by how they walk or where they go inside the stations. "Those with certain purposes somehow look different from normal subway patrons based on how they walk and where they go," an official said.

According to the subway police division under Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, each year since 2020 has seen more than 2,200 criminal cases reported in subway stations in Seoul, including sexual offenses, theft, sales of illegal products and violent assaults. Sexual offenses have been especially increasing. In 2020, 667 sexual offense cases were reported, and the following year saw 833. As of April this year, 251 counts of sexual offense have already been reported.

The techniques for making voyeur videos inside stations and subway carriages have been becoming increasingly sophisticated as well. Criminals use professional filming technology, high-performance cameras and other equipment to aid in committing their crimes.

A subway cop working for Jongno Police Station said he once caught a man on an escalator who was filming up women's skirts with a camera attached to his foot. "I saw this man sticking his foot between the legs of a woman in front of him," said the cop. "I thought it was suspicious and discovered that he was filming with a contraption he made. There was a small lens attached to his shoe which was wired along his leg to a small waist pouch inside which was a video recorder. I had never seen anything so sophisticated."

The subway police said that from 2020 until April this year, Seoul Metro Line 2 accounted for the most crimes with 1,778, while other subway lines reported less than 700 criminal cases.

Seoul Metro admitted that it is difficult to apprehend suspects because subway police don't have judiciary rights to investigate. When suspects don't cooperate with subway police, the cops don't have the power to arrest them. From 2020 to 2021, there were over 260 cases in which criminal suspects responded to subway cops with noncompliance or physical violence.

On May 13, Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul Metro, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and Seoul Autonomous Police Committee jointly held a campaign at Express Bus Terminal Station where they agreed to prevent subway crimes and promote their roles to the public.

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