20 minutes: Dubai Police arrest criminals in record time

Dubai's elite policewomen squad for VIPs show their skills during a graduation ceremony.

The Dubai Police have managed to cross a milestone by breaking the world record in terms of taking the shortest time to identify and arrest perpetrators of crimes.
It took the emirate's law-enforcement authority personnel, in a bizarre case, just 20 minutes to identify and catch the suspect after moving to the crime scene, which was only a 10 minutes' drive.
The Dubai Police personnel also succeeded in apprehending many fugitive suspects. Along with the swift actions to curb crimes, the Dubai Police have also been preventing the occurrence of crimes.
A report carried by Dubai-based Arabic daily Al Bayan quoted Major-General Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, assistant commander-in-chief of the Dubai Police for criminal investigation department, saying that "all the Dubai Police officers prioritised time as a major factor in any of the cases they handled".
Maj-Gen Al Mansouri said the Dubai Police have a strict and accurate mechanism of evaluation, by constantly reviewing all the phases and details of the cases for training purpose and also for helping to deal with other cases. "This is done through an electronic criminal record system that allows monitoring and re-analysing of the reports.
"It is impossible to close a crime file without identifying the perpetrators and taking legal action against them, even after lapse of years," he said. This was practically translated on the ground by arresting perpetrators involved in murder crimes, who were at large, either from inside or outside the country, or while they try to re-enter the country, thinking that the case file would be closed."
Maj-Gen Al Mansouri said the latest evaluation conducted by the General Department of Criminal Investigations (CID) in the second quarter of this year showed a decline of 12.8 per cent in the crime rates in Dubai, compared to the same period last year.
"The total known reports in the second quarter of the current year constituted 99.3 per cent compared with the contrast period last year," he noted.
As per the Violent Crime Index which measures the decrease in crimes, the UAE has the lowest level of violent crimes in the world; lower than that in advanced countries such as the USA and Germany. The UAE topped the list of countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and ranked 33rd worldwide in the rule of law index, a part of the International Justice project for 2016.
Low crime rate
The crime rates in the UAE are very low compared to other countries due to less number of the organised crime gangs and the social networks of different religious faiths.
Citing indexes released by international organisations, Maj-Gen Al Mansouri said most of the crimes are related to financial disputes, followed by drug-related cases and a very low number of theft cases.
According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016 issued by the World Economic Forum, the security and stability indicators in the UAE are among the best in the world. The UAE stands first globally in 'business costs of crime and violence' (meaning businesses in the UAE are least exposed to losses because of crime and violence) and second globally in 'business cost of organised crime'.
The 2016 statistics of the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) revealed that 86.5 per cent of people in the UAE are satisfied with their security during the day and 84.5 per cent are satisfied with their security at night times.
The Dubai Police underlined that the advancement in the criminal methods coincided with the progress made in the "search on the clues" which lead to the wrongdoer at a high speed, despite non-availability of important evidence at the crime scene. "The International Forensic Laboratory of the Dubai Police was launched to keep in line with the emirate's law enforcement strategy, which comes in the fore of safe cities globally."
Dubai Police officials said some criminals try to mislead the police by fabricating logical stories from their points of view, or change the features of the crime scene or hide the instrument of crime. But, the matter falls apart in front of the experience and acumen of the CID officers.
Unsolved crimes come down
Lieutenant-Colonel Adil Al Jokar, director of the department of criminal research at the Criminal Investigation Department, said there were no unsolved cases of rape and kidnapping, as the rate of the unproven crimes fell from eight cases in 2015 to six in 2016. There has been a drop in robbery and theft cases and the unsolved cases in these segments fell from 69 in 2015 to 47 last year.
"Theft, too, came down to 332 crimes last year against 460 in 2015. Stealing of motor vehicles dropped from 31 to 13 last year," he added.
Lt-Col Al Jokar said the criminal investigation department comprises of 30 specialised sections for combating all kinds of crimes.
He said as many as 22 security programmes have been implemented according to the highest security standards, which contributed effectively to curb crimes.
"In the last three years, all the murder cases were solved by the Dubai Police. A total of 26 cases were reported last year in which the perpetrators were apprehended and sent to stand trial."
He recalled the most infamous case termed "Al Jazzar" - the Arabic word for butcher - which remained a mystery for weeks.
The perpetrator, who thought he was smarter than the cops, was arrested and referred to the court by a specially formed action team.
UAE scores a 'very good' in Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016
> Business cost of crime and violence - 1st rank
> Business cost of organised crime - 2nd rank
> Public trust in politicians - 2nd rank
> Favouritism in decisions of government officials - 5th rank
> Reliability of police services - 7th rank
> Overall ranking among world economies - 17th
 
- malzarooni@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE
• Dubai

Mustafa Al Zarooni

malzarooni@khaleejtimes.com