Police put a brake on crime and traffic accident rates

Dubai: The emirate has improved its safety graph as the crime rate and traffic accidents have dropped significantly in recent years, a senior official said.

Statistics released by the Dubai Police reveal that the serious crime index of 83.7 for 100,000 residents in 2011 has surpassed the target set for 2015 of 109.1 per 100,000.

The index set for 2011 was originally not to exceed 126.3 per 100,000 residents, but with the steady drop in serious crime, Dubai has surpassed the index every year since 2008, Major General Abdul Qudoos Abdul Razzaq, Director General of the police's Total Quality Department, told Gulf News.

In 2008, the index listed 255.53 incidents compared to the target 320, while in 2009 the index dropped to 217.22 while the target was no more than 250, he said.

In 2010, the crime index saw a significant drop from 217.22 to 141.33 per 100,000 residents, while the target in the 10-year plan was not to exceed 210.

Meanwhile, the road fatalities index in the past four years saw a drop to 3.97 compared to the target 4 per 100,000 residents, making Dubai one of the safest cities in the world for road users.

The index continued to drop from 17.92 in 2008 to 12.42 in 2009 and 7.98 in 2010, while the original target in 2015 was no more than 6.5 fatalities per 100,000 residents, according to Maj Gen Abdul Razzaq.

The index has since been amended to reach zero fatalities per 100,000 residents by 2020.

Security scheme

The significant drop in the serious crime index was the result of extensive security programmes conducted by the Dubai Police last year.

These programmes include ‘Catch a thief', a home security programme devised by the Bur Dubai police station, which resulted in a 30 per cent drop in house thefts. The programme has been nominated for the Dubai Government Excellence Programme Award 2012 among other initiatives by the police.

Between mid-2009, when the campaign was launched, and January 2011, the programme utilised 17,500 patrols, which arrested 23,221 wanted people, out of which 2,126 were wanted for criminal cases, 4,303 were violators of the residency law, 10,970 suspects in various offences, 5,743 were wanted in cheque and financial cases, and 44 people who were caught red-handed while carrying out other crimes.

‘Security islands' is another programme being implemented which creates specialised teams to tackle each crime, while the ‘comprehensive police centre programme' helps people complete any police transaction in one place.

Meanwhile, police patrols have been on duty round-the-clock and intensified their presence in residential areas, acting as a strong deterrent to crime.