Sharjah: Sharjah Police has launched an awareness campaign to counter the problem of police impersonators. This comes in light of several impersonators being arrested for pretending to be police officers. The campaign called “Is it a real policeman?’ aims to spread awareness among all community members of the danger of police impersonators to individuals and the community. Most of the police impersonators were of Asian nationality and they posed as policemen to rob money, mobile phones and other valuables.
Colonel Omar Abdullah Al Suwaidi, Director of Sharjah Police Stations, said these impersonators targeted people mainly in the industrial areas of Sharjah and also in other areas.
The campaign will educate and inform community members on how best to protect themselves and how each individual needs to know the difference between the real and fake police. Sharjah Police want all community members to know what to look for and who to call in case they are ever confronted by an imposter.
Sharjah Police has registered 26 cases of police impersonation during 2014 and 2015, 13 cases in 2014 and 13 during the first quarter of 2015.
Col Al Suwaidi said, “It does not stand as a phenomenon compared with the crime rate, which declined by eight per cent, but it neverthless needs to be highlighted to educate the public of the dangers of such criminals and urge them to report such cases to the police for the welfare of the community.”
Sharjah Police has urged the public to look for signs that mark a real police officer. “Police officers will carrying a picture ID that has their name, a personnel number and they need to produce this evidence when you ask for it,” said Col Al Suwaidi. This information, he said, is important to know so as to not become a victim of an impersonator. Police officers will be known by their uniform as well as their badge and police ID.
Col Al Suwaidi said: “We found out that the suspects were targeting people who did not have adequate knowledge about the legal procedures taken by the police or those who did not ask them for their police identity card.”
He called on residents to always ask for identification when someone claimed to be from the police.
Police officers, he said, never ask people to show their wallets or demand money. Col Al Suwaidi called on people who come across such violations to report the matter to the police. Police do not inspect anyone except under exceptional circumstances or by authorisation of the public prosecutor. The police may ask the suspect for his identity card, driving licence and vehicle registration or for some other proof for a reason.
If you are unsure of the identity of the individual who claims to be from the police, call 999 or reach the nearest police station and report the incident, he advised.
Members of the public can report crimes or suspicious individuals to Sharjah Police by calling 999 or 06-5943000-06-5943210 or the toll-free number Najeed 800151, or they can text 7999 or email www.shjpolice.gov.ae/najeed.
Col Al Suwaidi said all this information will be given to the public on internal and main roads and highways in Sharjah city, and mainly the industrial areas, through brochures and booklets published in Arabic, English and Urdu.
Major Abdullah Rashid Al Naqbi, head of industrial area police stations, said when a person commits this kind of a crime, he is also looking for an appropriate means to escape as impersonating a police officer is more dangerous than any other form of impersonation. Such a crime, he said, may be motivated by material gain in the form of theft or fraud, or even by a sense of revenge against the victim.
One of the officers in a police station in the industrial area in Sharjah, Lieutenant Musabah Rashid Al Yamahi, said Major Al Naqbi has prepared a study titled, “Reasons to Impersonate Police Personnel in Industrial Areas and its Effects and Danger on the Security Situation in the emirate of Sharjah.”
The study came up with some strong recommendations:
1) All community members should be educated on how to differentiate between the identity of a real police officer versus a fake one.
2) The public should be engaged directly in certain police functions through the system (social experimentation) in different areas of police work, in order to notify people that they are part of the system and that security is for all.
3) In addition to raising public awareness of the dangers of such a crime, they must also be informed on prevention methods and police procedures for the sake of achieving the common good.
