There were 49 cases of assault on subway sheriffs this year alone... “Reduced capacity makes things worse.”

Even though subway security guards are constantly being assaulted while on duty, it has been pointed out that the Seoul Transportation Corporation is reducing the number of security guards and making the work environment worse.

According to data submitted by Seoul Metropolitan Councilor Lee Kwang-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea on the 12th from the Seoul Transportation Corporation, a total of 210 cases of assault by subway security officers occurred from 2023 to September of this year.

There were 51 cases in 2023, 43 cases in 2024, and 67 cases in 2025, and 49 cases of damage occurred in 9 months this year as well.

The number of dispatches and crackdowns by sheriffs was about 69,000 from 2023 to August of this year, of which dispatches related to drunk people accounted for the most at about 49,000.

Meanwhile, the number of subway security officers was reduced by 76 from 350 to 274.

The corporation explains that after the Sindang Station murder incident that occurred in 2024, the number of sheriffs was converted to the number of station employees in order to secure manpower for station employees to work in two-person teams, and the current number of sheriffs at the time was maintained.

Councilman Lee said, “Converting the subway security guards to station employees is no different from removing the lower stone and putting the upper stone on top,” and added, “We must clearly present the objective evidence that the current manpower can sufficiently perform the job despite repeated assaults.”

In addition, it was pointed out that although the corporation has secured additional protective equipment such as body cameras and safety shields and is providing job training, it has not quantitatively analyzed the effect of reducing assault damage after introducing the equipment.

Councilman Lee said, “It is difficult to consider it as proper safety management if we do not evaluate how much the safety measures so far have reduced the actual on-site risk,” and urged, “Please prepare specific goals and action plans to reduce the number of assaults by subway security guards to less than 30 next year.”