Enactment of Regulations and Publicness of Private SECURITY in Republic of KOREA

Abstract

Private security industry is a promising industry of the 21st century to overcome limitation of public police and implement the ideology of efficient government. Above all, government’s legal and institutional support and interest are indispensable to help private security take root as the best security service industry promoting safety of the public. To keep pace with development of private security industry, legal ground has been laid for private security business in Korea with enactment of Security Services Industry Act. In this context, this study was intended to examine major aspects of Security Business Act and private security system, the positive legal basis for private security, and present development measures to highlight purpose of promoting ‘benefits and protection of law’ for the public as the subject of security service, along with the measures to mitigate inadequacy of current private security in Korea. To pursue public benefits of crime prevention based on publicness of private security, the role of private security is inevitable. For that, measures that can ensure strong public confidence should be explored. In other words, the quality of private security, which forms an axis of collaborative security as co-producer of security service comparable to that of the police, should be improved to accommodate the demand of citizens, and furthermore, institutional improvement measures should be mapped out for autonomous implementation. For that, qualification system should be enforced for members, along with certification system for security business. Moreover, management assessment should be carried out first to assure fairness of government support. Unit price adjustment and resultant labor cost-cutting based on market principle may hinder provision of high quality security service. To resolve such problems, government support is needed desperately. Future amendment of Security Business Act should be made in such a way that security business works are specified clearly, so that duties and authority of security personnel can be regulated specifically. Through that, publicness needs to be strengthened further. In addition, discussion on enactment of regulations is needed to seek harmony between publicness and corporate characteristics, along with independence of private security as subject providing collaborative security service.