Questions/Answers

Safety e-Report aims to enable people to enjoy a safer life. Anyone who lives in South Korea can report any safety hazards around them such as damaged facilities, fire hazards, and standing or parking violations by taking a photo or video to the Safety e-Report web portal (www.safetyreport.go.kr) or mobile application, thereby allowing the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) to refer the problems to a responsible authority. This way, people can make a report simply with their phone without visiting an authority or signing up online. What is better, Safety e-Report is very accessible to seniors, people with disabilities, and foreigners thanks to convenient services such as its magnifying glass icon (to enlarge text), speech-to-text converter, text-to-speech converter, and English service. Once a report has been made, people can track its status in real time and receive a text message about the result, usually within seven days. Before Safety e-Report was introduced, government-led safety inspections did not reveal safety hazards at every corner, and people used to neglect hazards, assuming they fall under the government’s responsibility, or leave hazards unsettled because they did not know where and how to report. General hazard reports are made to regional or sub-regional governments, but local governments have different procedures from one another, and used to shift responsibilities between each other until it is too late or an accident has happened. In order to deal with this problem, Safety e-Report was launched in September 2014 as the world’s only safety hazard report system run by the government.

Safety e-Report relates to the category 3: Developing transparent and accountable public institutions. Every citizen has the right to safety, and the government has the responsibility to protect their life and property. Safety e-Report enables citizens to report safety hazards simply with their phone and allows the government to remove hazards and improve safety immediately, thereby delivering effective public services. To date, over 1.5 million reports have been made, preventing accidents and keeping society safe, which proves that Safety e-Report is an innovative tool that not only enhances public participation in policy processes but promotes excellence in public service through smartphones.

Safety e-Report relates to Goals 3: Good Health and Well-being, 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, and 13: Climate Action. Safety e-Report allows anyone to report any safety hazards, so that the government can address them. Ever since its launch (from Sept. 30, 2014 to Oct. 31, 2019), 1.5 million reports have been successfully dealt with, preventing deaths and injuries that might have been caused by any possible accidents. This is why Safety e-Report relates to “Good Health and Well-being.” In particular, climate change raises the risk of natural disasters and safety incidents, and the poor and vulnerable are the most affected and need rapid safety solutions. Safety e-Report enables citizens to report hazards caused by natural disasters and allows the government to respond rapidly and minimize damage, thus ensuring rapid restoration and care for the vulnerable. Therefore, Safety e-Report helps build safe and sustainable cities and communities.

Based on smartphones, Safety e-Report makes it possible to deliver a low-cost and high-efficiency service. With advanced mobile technology and the spread of smartphones, every citizen can use this service without restrictions. Therefore, the number of users and reports are constantly on the rise. As a result, Safety e-Report strives to build a safer environment for the poor and vulnerable, and create decent jobs in the social care sector. Its simple reporting procedure enables the vulnerable to equally enjoy rapid public service with less opportunity cost, and it is improving safety and hygiene.

While safety hazards are increasing with each passing day due to rapid development of science and technology, changing social environment, and climate change, the government does not have enough financial and human resources required to look into every corner of the country to find and deal with safety hazards, and it was impossible to do so. However, this problem was overcome thanks to Safety e-Report. Safety e-Report enables citizens to help prevent safety incidents by voluntarily reporting hazards that are not found due to limited workforce. This allows local governments and public authorities to deal with the reported hazards, and encourages the private sector to enhance public participation through communication and promotional events. Therefore, it is both a public-private partnership and co-production made possible by collaborative governance among the government, private sector, and citizens.

Safety e-Report requires active public participation because it is citizens’ voluntary reports and suggestions made to it that keep society safe. It does not entitle a specific group of citizens to be protected from disasters and accidents, and allows anyone who lives in South Korea regardless of their sex, age, and nationality to be protected and make a report, leaving no one behind. Also, it does not require personal data, so that anyone can easily make a report. Threats to women, such as sexual violence, sex trafficking, and pornography, as well as any threats to safety, can be reported.

There is no specific target groups because it is catered for anyone and everyone who lives in South Korea, including foreigners, who can report hazards in their community. Safety e-Report empowers those who report, and they feel proud and rewarded because their reports helps their family and neighbors enjoy safe living environments. Thanks to their reports, others can also be protected from unsafe living conditions. Thus, all the people who live in South Korea (50 million citizens and 2 million foreigners) are beneficiaries of this service. To date, 1.25 million out of 1.5 million safety hazards reported (settlement rate: 83.3%) have been eliminated. On the occasion of the Safety e-Report Review Contest held across the country in 2017, it received many positive comments: “Safety e-Report is a mandatory service for our safety. My report can save someone else’s life and reduce damage from unexpected disasters.”, “I was deeply touched by its fast action.”, “Safety e-Report saved my life. I am grateful.” Many people still call to express appreciation for the service.

After the Sewol ferry disaster claimed over 300 lives in April 2014, citizens became interested in safety more than ever. In order to enhance safety standards and meet the people’s needs, Safety e-Report started as a “Safety Hazard Report” section of the existing public service complaint system. The web portal of Safety e-Report opened on Dec. 12, 2014, and its mobile app was launched on Feb. 6, 2015. From September 2016 onwards, for the first time as a mobile app in public services, the Safety e-Report mobile app was grafted onto smartphones in collaboration with smartphone manufacturers, which made it easier for citizens to make a report. Its English service began on Dec. 12, 2017. Since 2018, education and communication efforts have been made, including visits to over 8,000 foreigners to inform them of Safety e-Report. On Apr. 17, 2019, a special section to report “standing or parking violations in four major areas” was created, and from May 1, 2019 onwards, people can report truck bed safety violations on highways as a result of the collaboration with the Korea Expressway Corporation. Safety e-Report improves through constant technological advances, communication efforts, and local governments’ performance evaluation. It is also self-monitored every year to assess its performance and find out its shortcomings so as to improve and develop its system the next year. In addition, Safety e-Report has taken root as a “safety report platform” true to its name, as it is also equipped with other features such as safety self-checking, personal journal, safety information including emergency instructions, and real-time safety news.

With the rapidly rising number of safety hazard reports, the MOIS encountered an obstacle: workforce shortage in classifying reports and transferring them to responsible authorities. In order to overcome this obstacle, automatic processing was introduced in 2019 to allow the Safety e-Report system to analyze and transfer reports in cases where such reports can be automatically processed. By doing so, the system itself can do as much work efficiently as about ten people can, thereby helping overcome staff shortage dramatically. In order to process reports more efficiently, new research on how to classify reports through artificial intelligence is underway at the moment.

Safety e-Report is an innovative public service that keeps society safe simply with smartphones. Without the need to go through complex procedures or visit authorities, people can use the GPS on their smartphone and send a photo to let the government settle the issue, and get notified about the result within a week. If not satisfactory, the MOIS officials visit the site in person and address the issue themselves. The vulnerable, including seniors, people with disabilities, and foreigners, can also easily make a report. Safety e-Report does not ask for personal data, and it also provides useful safety information.

Safety e-Report is similar, in part, to FixMyStreet in the UK, which is run by the private sector without holding authorities accountable. However, Safety e-Report is run by the government and authorities have to respond to a report within seven days. It does not ask for personal data and even enables people to make a video report. Like local package delivery companies provide their customers with tracking service, Safety e-Report informs people of their report status on social media.

Safety e-Report requires neither a large budget nor large-scale infrastructure. With the number of people using Safety e-Report rising, the Korean National Police Agency asked to benchmark the entire reporting processing procedure and the structure of the system. Having benchmarked the system, the National Police Agency is now running a mobile app for reporting crimes.

As the only reporting system in the world that engages all the public authorities and deals withall types of safety hazards, Safety e-Report is transferable to every country. It has a intuitive user interface that anyone can easily understand, and its system is so stable that it can be grafted onto smartphones. If a country has established complaint system, it can make a small adjustment to the system to connect it to a mobile app. Therefore, it can be transferable to developing countries. Even in countries where smartphones are not common, they can find resources available to run a people-friendly single window.

From 2014 to 2015, 0.7 million dollar was spent on establishing the system, including its web portal and mobile app, and 0.5 million dollar is spent annually to maintain the system. Its annual budget, including operating cost, is as follows: 1 million dollar in 2018, 7 million dollar in 2019, and 1.2 million in 2020. Safety e-Report is managed by ten officials of the MOIS. They create programs such as incentives, make communication efforts, assess the performance, analyze statistics, supervise private organizations, and operate/advance the system.

The MOIS is planning to offer prize money to more people who made excellent safety hazard reports, giving a citation and prize money on various occasions to those who contribute to promoting a culture of safety. It will also identify private organizations specialized in disaster safety, encouraging them to participate and offering them more support. The system will be improved and developed with new technology such as artificial intelligence, so that end users enjoy more convenient service. Because citizens are actively engaging in the service as safety watchers, Safety e-Report will be sustainable over time.

Yes

In November 2016, World Research conducted a survey of 1,000 adults aged 19 or older about their awareness, intention to return, and satisfaction over Safety e-Report. Also, in November 2019, the consortium between the Korea Transport Institute and Mokwon University conducted research on developing a performance evaluation model for Safety e-Report in order to measure the value of reports made to Safety e-Report.

A survey conducted by World Research asked respondents about ten items, including their awareness, satisfaction, intention to report, the rate of returning users, and their intention to recommend the service to others, using a five-point scale. The consortium between the Korea Transport Institute and Mokwon University conducted a survey and cost-benefit analysis to find out how much it has cost to improve facilities through safety hazard reports and how effective reports about standing or parking violations in four major areas have been since a new scheme was implemented to allow people to make such reports.

According to the survey, even in the early stage of the service, respondents showed very positive attitudes towards Safety e-Report as 93.5% of them had an intention to report, 91.2% found it necessary, 87.4% agreed that it helped remove hazards, 75.3% expressed their satisfaction, and 67.1% were aware of it. This result was reported in the media (on Dec. 12, 2016), enhancing communication efforts. The study to assess the performance of the Safety e-Report (conducted in Nov, 2019) evaluated the monetary value of traffic safety reports collected in the first half of 2019 (240,000 reports), and the result said their social benefits were valued at about 0.2 billion dollar, and one traffic safety report was worth about $18. In particular, the number of reports about parking violations rapidly rose (400,000 reports as of Oct. 2019) in four major areas (crosswalks, a corner of crossroads, bus stops, and areas close to fire hydrants) were subject to fine even without being checked by the police from April 17, 2019 across the country. Accordingly, 0.15 billion dollar was saved in terms of personnel expenses required for crackdowns on illegal parking.

Reports made to Safety e-Report are classified and sent to central government agencies, local governments, and other public authorities. Safety e-Report is linked to 550 authorities on their web site. Reports that concern multiple authorities are taken by the MOIS that acts as a mediator, and those authorities that fail to address the needs are inspected on site and urged to address the issue by the MOIS. Because disaster safety and prevention is a responsibility of local governments, the MOIS reflects the local government performance in dealing with safety hazard reports on the amount of fire safety subsidies they receive from the central government.

Safety e-Report is the result of public-private partnership that promotes safety awareness, as well as governance participated not only by the central government, local governments, and other public authorities but by private organizations and companies. In particular, the number of private organizations participating in this initiative reached 16 with more of them joining the “volunteer safety watchers,” and companies including LG, Samsung, and BGF Retail have shown tireless support. The participation of the private sector is likely to expand as more entities are showing their interest. Safety e-Report is a co-production that demands public participation, and has various incentives, including prize money and citations, to motivate people to participate. In addition, in order to receive more quality reports, excellent reports that have a far-reaching influence are selected by a panel of judges including professors and opened to the public.

In its early stage, Safety e-Report had received 16 reports a day at most, but the number now soars to over 4,000 a day, passing the one million mark in 2019 only. Next year, as many as 8,000 reports are expected a day, proving the people’s demand for safe living environments. With hindsight, rapid economic and industrial growth outweighed safety in the past, and the vulnerable group had strong desire for safety and yet little accessibility to public services. Those unmet needs have been met by Safety e-Report as it offers equal opportunities and benefits to access public services. The key lesson learned is that “safety” is a universal value that should be equal to everyone regardless of their wealth, sex, and age. The MOIS will continue to improve and develop Safety e-Report, so that its system maintains the respect for safety and help pass down a safe society to future generations.