If you're dragging little kids, or just love law enforcement, or you're like me and you go to strange, small museums, then, you probably want to spend about half an hour at this museum.
As the name suggests, the exhibits look at the history of Korea's police system.
Several uniforms and artifacts are on display from the past 100 or so years, with a bit of older information as well.
The displays show how the laws and crime fighting have changed. The 1970s display includes an interesting tidbit: apparently there was a law about how short a skirt could be, and it was a policeman's duty to enforce that law.
CSI-style equipment and methods are heavily featured too. This is a good place to mention that the displays are almost entirely in Korean, although there is an English brochure to help decipher the exhibits.
The museum is more or less chronologically arranged, with several hands-on exhibits at and beyond the "modern" displays. I'm not exactly sure what this diorama was supposed to teach, but perhaps it showed all the aspects that the police department is involved in around Seoul. It's supposed to focus on the special police.
The second floor (you go from the fifth floor down during your visit) has several experiences - lie detectors, fingerprinting, traffic control, and a simulation shooting range, among other things. Again, exhibits are all in Korean, so some of them are difficult to use without being able to read and understand the language.
At the end, there are several photo opportunities. Here's an old police motorcycle and a more modern police bike. You can see some kids dressed in uniforms - there are several to try on for the pictures.
Be the boss! Or ride in a cop car. There aren't any doors though, so buckle your seat belt... oh, that's gone too.
For most visitors, this museum is probably pretty low on the list. It's located near the Seoul Museum of History, the
agricultural museum,
Seoul Museum of Art, and
Deoksugung Palace, though, so it was on my day's sightseeing route.
The museum has a very good English website. It (the museum, not the website) is open 9:30-17:30. Admission is free.
From Line 5's Seodaemun Station, take Exit 4 and follow the main road for about seven minutes; look for the building facade in the first picture. Note that the agricultural museum and Seoul Museum of History are both on this street as well. In order, from Seodaemun Station, you'll pass the agricultural museum, then the police museum, and soon after that you'll reach the history museum.
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