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Citizen Ideas Transform Public Safety in Busan: Three Outstanding Projects Selected for the Busan Autonomous Police Public Safety Living Lab

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The Busan Metropolitan Autonomous Police Committee, chaired by Kim Cheol-jun, announced that it selected three outstanding projects for field testing at the 2026 Busan Autonomous Police Public Safety Living Lab Interim Performance Report Meeting held on July 23.

From March through April, the Committee invited Busan residents to submit project proposals for the Public Safety Living Lab. Five teams were selected through document screening and interviews. The Committee has since supported the teams in refining their ideas through expert consulting and mentoring, conducting field surveys, analyzing problems, developing solutions, creating prototypes, and preparing for field testing.

At the interim performance report meeting on July 23, the five project teams presented their research outcomes and field-testing plans. Following evaluations by experts in relevant fields, three outstanding projects were selected for field testing.

The three selected projects are the creation of safe routes home to prevent crime in areas with high concentrations of single-person households, a campaign to distribute safety kits to promote safer driving among older drivers, and the development of a crime-prevention environment to protect women living alone. From August through October, the teams will produce prototypes and conduct field demonstrations to apply and verify their ideas in real-world settings.

The Committee also plans to support prototype production, expert consultation, cooperation with relevant organizations, and field demonstrations to ensure the projects proceed smoothly.

Since 2022, the Committee has continued to operate the Public Safety Living Lab, a citizen-led problem-solving model introduced for the first time in the country. Through the program, public safety ideas identified directly by residents are tested in real-world settings and developed into policies, helping establish a participatory public safety policy model.

Previous Public Safety Living Lab projects, including Safe Drop Zones for children’s school routes, bench-style village bus stop signs, and safe zones in traditional markets, received strong ratings in user satisfaction surveys and were recognized for their effectiveness and tangible benefits for residents.

The Committee also publishes and distributes an annual collection of project outcomes to share successful Public Safety Living Lab experiments and promote wider policy adoption. It will continue working with relevant organizations to connect and expand proven projects into policy initiatives, developing them into practical, community-focused public safety policies that residents can experience firsthand.

“The Public Safety Living Lab is a participatory public safety policy model in which residents identify local safety issues themselves and turn solutions developed through diverse experiments and collaboration into policy,” said Kim Cheol-jun, Chairperson of the Busan Metropolitan Autonomous Police Committee. “We will continue to provide active support so that citizens’ ideas can be thoroughly tested in real-world settings and developed into effective public safety policies. We will do our utmost to make Busan a safer city that residents can truly experience.”