Lt. Jang forms bond with 'street people'

Police lieutenant Jang Jun-gi takes care of a homeless man in Seoul subway station, Thursday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Lee Min-hyung

“Put away your camera or I’m gonna break it,” threatened a homeless man in a crowd gathering in the subway station below Seoul Station.

Although the camera lens was aimed at a policeman assigned to monitor the homeless community, the crowd of homeless men approached and surrounded the photographer.

“The reporters came to interview me, please stop yelling at them,” said police lieutenant Jang Jun-gi. The homeless men stopped being hostile and aggressive.

Passersby might have thought the policeman was cracking down on vagrancy, but exchanges between him and the homeless men showed that they were old friends. The crowd of homeless men appeared to respect the policeman, and he spoke sincerely to them.

Due to the plummeting winter temperatures, increasing numbers of the capital’s homeless crowd into Seoul Station. Some commuters frown disapprovingly, while others walk indifferently past rows of people sitting on cardboard drinking soju and smoking.

Even though they sometimes responded aggressively, even to those who walked past them, they appeared to like Jang who has been helping and working with homeless people for 15 years.

“There are some 200 homeless people who stay around the Seoul Station area. I know almost all of them,” he said.

While patrolling the district, he takes care of the homeless people, many of whom he knows on a first name basis, as if they are members of his family. And this affection is returned. As soon as many of them see Jang, many become excited and smile at him.

When they fight or make a lot of fuss at the station, he interrupts them but never forces them to stop.

Instead, he tries to persuade them to stop fussing.

“Lieutenant Jang is asking us to stop fighting with each other. We need to stop,” said one of the homeless men who played games while drinking on the floor of the station.

While he patrolled the beat, two homeless people even handed him rice cakes. For the homeless, sharing food with others is rarely seen, which showed how much he is trusted among the homeless.

Though Jang refused to accept the food offered, they appeared eager to give them to Jang because there appeared to be no other way to express their gratitude for the policeman who has worked among them for more than a decade.

“As the weather gets colder, I try to advise the homeless to stay indoors,” Jang said.

“There is a ‘rescue room’ located near exit No. 6 of the Seoul metro subway station. This special shelter for the homeless was built in 2011 as part of a welfare program driven by Seoul Mayor, Park Won-soon.”

The place is able to hold some 80 people every day, and there are two huge warmly heated rooms.

“Whenever I see homeless people wandering outside and trembling in the cold, I tell them to go to the rescue room,” he said.

Policemen often rotate around different sections regularly, but Jang has been working at the police substation for more than a decade.

“I think the government highly appreciated my efforts to help the homeless around Seoul Station, and for that reason, they have let me work here for 15 years,” he said.

Returning to the police substation where he works, he encountered an intoxicated homeless man.

“Where have you been for three months?” Jang said, apparently having known the guy for a long time.

“He used to stay and wander around Seoul Station before he disappeared three months ago,” Jang said. “I have contacted local police departments to find his whereabouts, but I couldn’t find out anything about him. Now I am relieved to see him again.”

According to him, a number of local hospitals take in homeless people who stay near the Seoul Station area. After illegally treating the homeless, he said, the hospitals earn money from the government.

The number of homeless people has declined over the past three years, according to statistical data released by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

In 2011, there were almost 500 homeless people in Seoul, but this declined to 356 as of September 2014. This is a result of efforts made by homeless shelters.

But Jang said it is hard to gain exact numbers of homeless people on the street because they move erratically from place to place.