In the modern society and in this time of rapid change, new kinds of crimes are on the rise, and terrorist attacks are frequently occurring not only at major government facilities but also at public facilities. In addition, as North and South Korea are in a military standoff in a state of armistice, the importance of protecting and guarding the major government facilities has never been greater.
Currently, the protecting and guarding of major government facilities in South Korea has been mostly performed by security guards and civilian guard personnel such as special guards. However, the government buildings of the major government facilities employ and dispatch public security officers for such purposes primarily for reliability.
Therefore, this study aims to closely examine the institutional issues of public security officers who are protecting and guarding the government buildings at major government facilities. The issues have not been studied so far, and this study also aims to improve basic welfare and roles of the public security officers by suggesting the remedies for them. In addition, this study intends to provide the basic data needed for increasing the overall efficiency of protecting and guarding major government facilities in Korea.
This study mainly utilized the method of literature search basically to identify the issues of the public security officers at major government facilities, and referred to the hands-on opinions of the public security officers at central and local governments, gathered through personal interviews.
First, this study analyzed the actual conditions of the public security officers managing system at major government facilities, and identified the issues largely in four categories. Next, this study examined the remedies of the known issues in the system. The first remedy is the arrangement of legal basis for the public security officers by authorizing them ''the Act on the Performance of Duties by Police Officers'' and enacting the law for their duties. The second remedy is adoption of a new recruitment method using the open competition and experience-based recruiting, particularly for experienced guards and police personnel. The third is improvement and systematization of the existing education and training programs for new recruits. And finally, the fourth is establishment of an independent department designated solely for the protection of government office buildings and strengthening of individual roles as civilian guards.