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People are our partners in curbing crimes: CID

DUBAI — The CID chief in Dubai said yesterday that police place a strong emphasis on partnerships with the community to combat crime.

Dubai Police announced they had brought out a bilingual guide aimed at helping people prevent falling victims to criminal activities.

“People are our partners in reducing crime,” said Brigadier Khamis Mattar Al Mazainah, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Dubai Police. “This guide is the updated version of the one initially brought out last year,” he added.

The official said the public, in their various communities, were partners for police in curbing criminal activities. The ‘Prevention Guide’ in English and Arabic, he said, will be available at police stations, the police HQ’s reception area and the CID offices.

Brig. Al Mazainah said statistics and detailed information on crimes in Dubai were analysed and presented in the form of advice and guidelines for the public to follow to reduce the number of crimes in the emirate.

It includes explanations on modus operandis followed by criminals, “and this will help people avoid such crimes,” he said. The information was compiled by the Administration of Preventive Security.

“For example, we have sought to tell women how best, from a safety point of view, to carry their hand bags. Contents should not be visible, including mobile phones, passports, credit cards, car keys etc. Valuables should be placed in safe places that thieves cannot reach,” Brig. Al Mazainah said. “We do not want people to fall prey to crime,” he stressed.

The official also mentioned the so-called ‘money-multiplying methods’ used by criminals involved in black magic and swindling. Such crimes spread in the UAE and the Gulf region since the early 1990s.

“This type of crime is a major headache, and we urge nationals and expatriates to ignore individuals claiming to have magical powers to create cash from normal papers. People should not to be dragged into dreams of fortunes and hallucinations. These tricksters are liars, and if them claim they could generate large sums of money, why do not they do that for themselves,” one CID officer said.

More than 22 cases involving various sums of money were revealed so far this year, in which tricksters, mostly Africans, ran away with large amounts given to them by their victims to conduct money-multiplying operations.

“We urge people to cooperate with us by informing the nearest police station about such tricksters. We can perform our duties more effectively if cooperation is extended to us in time by the public,” said the policeman.

An increase this year in the number of cases involving tricksters cheating people in the UAE of cash through black magic and the so-called ‘money multiplying methods’, prompted authorities to set up a special section to deal primarily with these crimes in October.

Dubai Police urged people suspecting individuals of involvement in this kind of crimes to call police immediately on a special telephone number.

“These crimes surfaced in the 1990s and continued to be a headache,” said an officer at the Economic Crime Section at Criminal Investigation Department.

A total of 18 cases were registered in 2003. But the figure appeared to have increased significantly this year. So far, 27 cases have been registered in Dubai since the beginning of 2004. Police urged people to call 04-2014475 to give any information on suspects involved in such crimes.

The official said there had been several ways in which tricksters cheated their victims who are mostly ‘simple individuals’ searching for quick bucks.