Policing and Justice in Dubai - Research Paper Example

Policing and Justice in Dubai 1.1 Introduction Dubai police force is one of the strongest in Middle East, consisting of 15000 personnel. They are handled under the judiciary of Prime minister and Vice President of UAE, who is presently the ruler of Dubai. It was first founded in 1956 in Naif, it was located in deira side of Dubai. Therefore, first police station in Dubai was known as Naif Fort, which consisted of 29 members. 1.2 Dubai police Dubai police force is one of the best in Middle East because it is the most progressive force than any other Arabic police forces. It focuses mainly on excellent education of its key personnel. It was the first force which used law enforcement technique among all nations and also included DNA testing and electronic finger printing to detect criminals. It was also first to use GPS system in order to identify stolen cars. In addition to all these, it was also first in creating Human Resource Department and Community Policing Program within its premises. Police station in Dubai is built on the basis of sound architectural work, because of which their buildings are known as Distinguished Constructional Conception (Country report, 2007). 1.3 Policing and justice system in Dubai Dubai has one of the best justice systems in Middle East. Ministry of interior is mainly liable for creating law and order in the country. Primary responsibility of police is to prevent and investigate crimes and to create an order in the country. All departments have different authority personnel such as National Guard is responsible to conduct duties on oil fields, utilities and borders. These guards’ acts as the main forces of Dubai and reinforce metropolitan police when it needs depending on specific situations. All individuals working in Dubai police have to learn a three year program in Police Academy. However, National Guard officers are provided training in Kuwaiti Military College. After these training programs specialized training is given to trainers. Women also work in Dubai police department such as in inquiries, criminal investigation and airport security. Police division is mainly responsible for criminal investigation, passports and nationality, emergence police, immigration, traffic, prisons, trials, civil defense and court martial’s. Criminal investigation division is responsible to handle normal criminal cases. Kuwait State Security is responsible to solve security related issues. Both of these departments have become the best in Middle East by efficiently investigating of crimes and terrorism and have also helped other countries to solve their criminal issues (Country Report on Terrorism, 2008). 1.4 Judicial system One of the most practiced justice system in Dubai is Kuwaiti Judicial system. It mainly deals with adequate appeals and trials of public issues. Under this law, no prisoner can be kept in bars more than four days without any charge. However, a prisoner can be kept in bars for more than twenty four days without any case custody. However, there exist some lower level courts, in which decisions are made after three years. Prisoners have an option of legal counsel and court is not responsible to provide any attorney. Kuwaiti authorities identified that crime rate in Dubai is very low. In accordance to economic bulletin report of 2010, around 500 prisoners are present in jails, out of which only 5% are involved in the cases of theft. While it have been noted that fraud, alcohol violation, forgery, narcotics, bribery and threats are the major issues faced by police of Dubai (Gottschalk & Dean, 2010). Justice is made by two separate control panels, who mainly deal with crime cases and other public issues. Trials in courts are handled in closed session. However, press and media sources are kept informed of all decisions made. This means nothing is kept secret from public. Military courts are responsible to handle cases related to armed forces or services. It charges civilians under the conditions of martial law. In Dubai martial law was first imposed after the phase of liberalization in the country (Yemen, 2011). 1.5 Current scenario Presently, Dubai police is making best efforts to achieve highest international standards in terms of performance, education, follow ups, training, maintaining security and launching best initiatives for local community. Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum declared that people of Dubai is proud of its police force due to its services, operations and facilities. Continuous training of police personnel has created more efficiency in the department. Learning and training process have been developed further through the usage of scientific training methods. Dubai police does not wait for any incident to occur rather it takes preventive measures to detect crimes which have likelihood to occur. This is a most professional approach of Dubai police. It makes sound decision by extracting various ideas in relation to a particular situation rather than depending on just one individual. Presently, a survey was conducted by the Chairmen of Dubai culture, on 15th Feb 2011. He toured the major control and command centers in Dubai. While noticing the traffic movement in the country he identified that all external and internal roads in Dubai were being monitored through one of the effective mega e-display screens (Abdulla, 2007). 1.6 Achievements It was the first force to use electronic fingerprints and DNA testing for criminal investigations and was the first in Arabic department that used paperless concept. It received many prizes and was rewarded for implanting new techniques firstly in the entire police force system both internationally and locally. Dubai police was the first to use Automatic Vehicle Locator through Loran C signals and GPS for Automatic Vehicle Locator. It launched these in the entire system even before American and European countries. References Abdulla, Mohammed Murad. (2007). A Conversation with Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Commander-in-Chief of the Dubai Police, United Arab Emirate. Police Practice & Research, 8(1), pp. 79-91. Country report: Middle East and North Africa overview. (2007), pp. 5-5 Country Report on Terrorism. (2008), pp. 1-351 Gottschalk, Petter & Dean, Geoff. (2010). Knowledge Management in Policing: The Case of Police Complaints and Police Crime. Police Journal, 83(2), pp. 96-112. Yemen. (2011). Dubai police seize arms shipment. CNN World News. 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