Gyeonggi-do is Currently 'At War with Malicious Complaints'

Gyeonggi Province, its cities and counties, and fire headquarters within the province are competing to establish measures to respond to 'malicious civil complaints,' drawing attention.

According to Gyeonggi Province and its cities and counties on the 2nd, Suwon City has changed the disclosure status of employees' names and office seating charts posted on the city homepage to private starting from the 1st of this month to protect staff from malicious civil complaints.

This measure aims to block various malicious complaints such as so-called 'coordinate pinpointing,' which maliciously exposes the personal information of civil complaint staff online to induce a 'civil complaint bomb,' and stalking-type complaints.

Lee Jae-jun, Mayor of Suwon City, explained, "Acts that infringe on the human rights of public officials or insult their dignity through malicious civil complaints are unacceptable," adding, "We have accepted employees' opinions and changed the disclosure status of employees' names and office seating charts to private."

Gwacheon City also decided to protect public officials from malicious civil complaints by changing the disclosure status of public officials' names posted on the city hall website's organizational chart to private and removing public officials' photos from the seating charts attached to department entrance doors within the building. Additionally, they will operate recorded phone calls and form a malicious civil complaint response team across all departments. They also plan to enforce the mandatory placement of safety personnel in the civil complaint office.

Furthermore, in the event of malicious civil complaints, they will separate the person in charge and actively respond by providing legal consultation and legal support.

Shin Gye-yong, Mayor of Gwacheon City, emphasized, "Protecting employees is essential to provide high-quality administrative services to citizens," and added, "Starting with these measures, we will do our best to ensure that employees can work safely."

Earlier, on the 22nd and 25th of last month, Gyeonggi Province conducted legal response training against illegal acts by civil complainants for civil complaint officers at the Northern Provincial Government Complex and Suwon Gwanggyo Government Complex to protect public officials.

Gyeonggi Provincial Government

This training was held in response to the continuous occurrence of damage cases to civil complaint officers due to illegal acts by civil complainants. A professional lawyer served as the instructor and explained ▲laws related to civil complaint handling ▲province public official legal support system ▲criminal case procedures ▲punishment grounds for illegal acts by civil complainants ▲and case examples by type of illegal acts by civil complainants.

Kim Chun-gi, Director of the Gyeonggi Province Open Civil Complaint Office, said, "Every time I hear reports of public officials suffering due to malicious civil complainants, my heart feels heavy," and added, "Gyeonggi Province will continue to establish measures to eradicate malicious civil complaints to protect civil complaint officers."

The Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters, which has been struggling with malicious civil complaints, decided in July last year to strictly investigate without leniency cases of assault on paramedics and obstruction of fire activities caused by malicious civil complaints.

Jo Sun-ho, Director of the Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters, stated, "We plan to thoroughly investigate and strictly punish not only cases of assault on fire officials but also repeated obstruction of fire activities," and pointed out, "Obstruction of fire activities such as assault on paramedics can make me, my family, and all citizens victims."

Meanwhile, according to the provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters, there were a total of 193 cases of obstruction of fire activities from 2020 to 2022. Among them, 37 cases resulted in imprisonment, 78 cases in fines, and the remaining 78 cases are still pending court rulings.