• Home

‘British policing can learn from the UAE’

In an editorial comment in the Guardian, Ali Dizaei, a chief superintendent in London’s Metropolitan police and legal adviser to the National Black Police Association, praising in particular the police in Dubai, said British policing can learn from the Muslim world and its attitude to community relations.

“Dubai is one of the most ethnically diverse societies in the world and, by examining the governance, structure, accountability and legitimacy of its police force, it was patently obvious that British policing can learn an enormous amount about how law enforcement can help achieve community harmony.”

He described the UAE as a state in the most volatile part of Middle East where commercialism and capitalist philosophies walk hand in hand with Islamic values.

“Strong religious values seem to merge easily with the growing western influence imported by British and US companies and expatriates. Its population is much more diverse than in most British cities, with over 180 nationalities speaking more than 100 languages — yet there is a conspicuous absence of inter-community tension. “It is one of the busiest tourist destinations in the Middle East, with 45,000 British expatriates,” the British officer stated.

Unlike in Britain, the host community is in a minority and the majority of the population are there to work — invited for their skills, he added.

Dubai, he noted, has transformed its standing as a centre of commerce by utilising the skills of migrant workers and professionals, who are subject to stringent but realistic conditions.

Citing an example for these stringent conditions, he said: “There are, however, a number of conditions. For example, they cannot buy property unless it is in designated zones. These zones are not ghettos — the aim is to ensure that the country’s Islamic values are not undermined by western mores.”

In a recent public opinion survey, 84 per cent of Dubai residents said they felt “secure and safe,” despite being a stone’s throw from some of the most problematic countries in the world. “The crime detection rate of 89 per cent puts to shame our own struggle to detect crime.”

Every police district employs a team of officers whose job is to ensure compliance to human rights. Senior police officers and politicians welcome these rights rather than see them as a hindrance.

And, rather than adopt Britain’s conventional method of putting police officers in classes and telling them what a Muslim or a Hindu looks like, operational officers are sent on intensive courses to learn the languages of the migrant communities, encouraging a true understanding of different cultures. They are expected to conduct interviews in these languages, Dizaei said.

Giving an in-depth analysis of the security level, Dizaei said the greatest threat to the UAE, and to Dubai in particular, was from the organised criminals who are inevitably attracted by the country’s wealth.

“If Dubai is not to become a haven for organised criminals, the police forces of Britain and Dubai must collaborate. But while British officers can assist Dubai’s police, there is a lot that British policing can learn from the Muslim world and its attitude to community relations,” he noted.

He concluded: “The idea that we know best in the west how to police our communities may soon have to be given a decent but final burial.”

• UAE