Dubai: Impersonating a police officer is against the law in the UAE.
A person who claims to be a law enforcement officer or poses as a public servant to carry out a certain governmental task without being assigned or allowed to do so by the concerned authorities faces imprisonment.
People who impersonate police officers are referred to the criminal court for prosecution. Those found guilty most likely end up in prison. However, there have been cases in which suspects were cleared of impersonation charges and acquitted for lack of evidence.
According to article 250 of the Federal Penal Law, a person who impersonates a public servant and/or carries out a public servant's duty, faces up to five years in jail. A person who interferes, directly or indirectly, in certain public services faces up to five years in jail as well.
A suspect who wears the uniform of a police officer or public servant without being authorised, could face up to one year in jail or get a maximum fine of Dh10,000, according to article 251 of Federal Penal Law.
It has been generally observed that someone who impersonates a police officer does it to intimidate victims and commit crime.
Impersonators tend to pose as police officers, inspectors, interrogators or other law enforcement officers to commit crimes such as kidnapping, theft, rape and murder.
In one case three men were given jail sentences of seven years each followed by deportation for impersonating policemen, kidnapping two sisters and raping them in the desert.
The three defendants were accused of posing as members of Dubai Police's CID, intimidating the sisters into getting into their car. The defendants took the sisters to the outskirts of Dubai, molested and raped them.
