For Help in English

Get to Know the Gwangju Dongbu Police Station’s Foreign Liaison

Lee Hye-gyoung has investigated gambling rings, cracked down on sex trafficking, worked security at Incheon’s airport and escorted foreign VIPs to their destinations, but now she can be found in plain clothes at Gwangju’s universities and multicultural centers, where she gives presentations, hands out public safety literature and performs the myriad other duties that come with being the foreign liaison for the Gwangju Dongbu Police Station.

Lee possesses the rank of a gyeongsa – literally “third-rank police” but sometimes translated as “sergeant.” She is one of only 15 officers charged with protecting Gwangju’s continually growing foreigner population, some members of which know her by her English name Monica. Moreover, she says, “I am the only police who can speak English in [Dong-gu’s] Foreign Affairs division.” Dong-gu alone is home to over 1,200 foreign residents, as well as multiple expat-run businesses where the rest of the city’s English-speaking expats typically gather.

Lee joined the police force after majoring in geology at university. Inspired by an English club at her alma mater and wanting to broaden her way of thinking, Lee told Gwangju News she joined the police force primarily to meet a greater variety of people. She also sheepishly admitted to being a lifelong fan of both Sherlock Holmes and the Korean television show “Susa Banjang,” which she described as Korea’s “C.S.I.”

From these innocent motivations began what she describes as an exciting and fulfilling career of service. She once raided a gambling den in which migrants were betting money on games of mahjong. Her team found the den’s illegal profits hidden inside an industrial-sized container of red pepper paste. While working in Incheon, she found herself with the unfortunate task of helping U.S. trade representatives through a crowd of anti-F.T.A. protesters, who pelted her with eggs.

But though Lee has had her share of encounters over the course of her 14 -year career, she said she feels very much at home in an office, and that she derives a great deal of satisfaction from helping the foreign community of Gwangju. For helping her through the difficulties, she credited her husband, 12-year old daughter and 9-year old son. “They always support me. Whenever the foreign events are held after work and on weekends, they happily join me.”

Lee regularly gives presentations about public safety and the finer points of Korean law to foreign students, English teachers and migrants. One particular responsibility she has is the production and distribution of police literature in the form of posters, pamphlets and notices, informing foreign residents about laws and regulations that may be slightly different from their home countries but which can get them in trouble nonetheless. While there is no shortage of pamphlets, however, Lee admits that online resources available for non-Korean speakers are very limited. In an effort to rectify this oversight, Lee plans to soon establish and monitor a Facebook page dedicated to Gwangju foreign residents’ legal problems and questions. The page should be up next year.

Also conspicuously missing from available reading material is information about what residents are enabled by law to do when they find themselves in an emergency situation. During her interview for this article, Lee was asked how people may legally defend themselves if attacked. This is actually a particularly important question for foreigners; according to Lee, statistics indicate that more than half of all crimes in which foreigners are involved are assaults.

“There are drunken assaults around the clubs on Chungjang-ro and group assaults in the Pyeongdong complex area in Gwangsan-gu,” she explained. “And there is especially domestic violence in which migrant women are victims.”

If attacked, Lee recommends fighting back but not escalating the situation; retaliating against an unarmed assault with a weapon might land the victim in more trouble than the aggressor, with the exceptions of sanctioned pepper-sprays or other alternatives.

During the interview, Lee was able to go into great detail about the ideal flow of a case, and the common hiccups that can complicate matters. She stressed above all that reporting an incident immediately, preferably while victim, perpetrator and witnesses are all still present at the scene, is the most helpful thing anyone can do to aid in the pursuit of justice. Quick reporting can turn a case from a three-week ordeal into a three-day turnaround.

In the event that the crime is reported a significant amount of time after the incident, a strict protocol is followed in which victims and suspects must be located and interviewed separately, after which a case file must be sent to the prosecutorial branch of the Korean National Police (KNP). The KNP then makes a determination about what action should be taken. This slow progression through what is said to be an understaffed system can take over a month to come to any meaningful conclusion, leaving victims to wonder if the police are pursuing their cases at all.

Lee wants internationals to know they are indeed committed, especially her. “Last night I got a call from a victim who has been worried about her safety from a suspect, so I chatted with her to make her relieved… I have been chatting even if it is late at night. Even after work hours, I get some calls which need my help and I try to do my best to solve the problems.”

Crime prevention is a two-way street, though. “I am only one person managing foreign foreign affairs in the Dong-gu district, so I will be glad if the foreign community becomes my eyes and ears, so I can listen to and to understand your difficulties and some problems.”

If you are an international resident of Gwangju, she encourages you to contact her with any concerns or questions. Her e-mail address is: monika1004@naver.com.

GWANGJU CRIME IN 2013:

Total 287 reported crimes by non-Koreans

117 assaults

77 traffic crimes and miscellaneous misdemeanors

9 sex-related crimes

53 cases of fraud

31 thefts

PERPETRATORS BY COUNTRY:

Total 351 internationals committed crimes

351 internationals committed crimes

161 Chinese

38 Vietnamese

17 Mongolian

25 American

16 Uzbek

94 Miscellaneous