Suresh Kumar S Nair, AI ISec
Traditional Criminology has been criticized for its focus on State sponsored Criminal Justice education and research as it relatively keeps its scholarly attention away from various transformed forms of policing in modern times. The major reason cited for such neglect was that the policing activity largely remains with Government and any scholarly activity in the area of crime control should be invariably associated with Criminal justice and Jurisprudence. However, the growth and development of private security as a means of private policing demanded the application of criminological concepts on this professional area as well. Albeit some remarkable attempts on directing academic thoughts into private policing, still more efforts are needed in this area to keep the societies safer.
The rapid growth of several economies throughout the world and associated increase in trade and commerce has multiplied criminal rewards. This has evinced increased interest among several local criminal gangs to be transnational. The advantages of transport, communication and technology facilitated the transnational criminal groups to target both people and property abroad. The nexus between local criminal gangs and their more organised counter parts abroad poses serious threat to policing the nations and it could be argued that the very concept of policing needs to be more ‘transnational’ to combat this menace. This article tries to incorporate the ideas of private policing and its criminological dimensions to some of the recent incidents of property crimes in UAE and focuses on a crime reduction strategy supported by new policing practices and academic thoughts.
15th April 2007 the Wafi City, a high-end shopping mall in Dubai, witnessed one of the worst property crimes in recent times. Around 9:45 PM on that day a group of masked criminals, gained entry by smashing the glass en trance of the mall using two stolen cars. They targeted a diamond shop housed inside complex and broke open the glass showcases to grab diamond jewelry worth millions of Dhirams and sped the scene. The entire operation was meticulously completed in less than two minutes and the robbers managed to escape the crime scene. Similarly numerous incidents were reported in the media about the spate of incidents involving property crimes in UAE. All of these indicate that a new matrix for the criminal behavior could be set in unless urgent policing strategies are evolved.
On 23rd April 2007, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the Commander-in- chief of Dubai Police emphatically reassured the people of Dubai, on the determination of the government and the capabilities of his force to effectively tackle the situation. Six days after on 29th, the confidant Lt. Gen. Tamim announced the victory of his men in successfully arresting the gang who had definite transnational connections. The whole episode triggered serious thoughts in to the security and policing strategies to manage property crimes in UAE
The management of property crimes involves two major auspices namely the state police and the private security establishments. The economics of protection is largely based on the government’s capability [non-capability] to supply it sufficiently enough for the public. When such public demand exceeds the police supply, the people turn to commercial or own establishments to secure their property. The definition of security in the private domains need not be within ‘the logic of state police’as the corporate interests always determine it (Nina and Russel, 2006). In a world of unprecedented economic development and the growing “mass private properties” (a term conceptualized by Shearing and Stenning (Shearing and Stenning, 1980), one has to realize the subtle dynamics of private policing vis-à-vis public policing.
The modern security governance and its transformation from the traditional concept of protection of the state induced a renewed thinking on the ways and means of policing the society. A visible shift in the policing policies of the states was the emergence of private security as a protection service. Though some criminologists cast their doubts on whether private security could be termed as a transformed way of policing (Johnston), it is indeed a major provider who shares the state responsibility of protection of many private spaces used by the public. The private spaces particularly the “mass private properties” where protection needs should be hand in hand with the commercial and economic interests, policing becomes more private, pushing aside a tougher protection protocol provided by the public police. A study at the Department of Criminology, University of Leicester UK has highlighted the impact of privatisation on the efficiency of policing the private spaces and observed that barring a few security companies who have multinational corporate identity, most of the local private providers of protection lack professionalism in their service (Nair, SKS.2005).
The task of crime reduction is associated with a host of strategies particularly the reduction of criminal opportunities. The notion that crime control should be the exclusive role of the state police is no longer sustainable and the ‘relative responsibilisation’ of all the parties viz. the auspices, providers and the public is required in a crime free society. The restructuring of policing taken place in the recent times, accord with the above statement though Beyley and Shearing (2001) reported its real causation as police shortcomings, increase in crimes and economic development. “The contemporary restructuring of policing separates both the authorization of security and the activity of policing from what is recognized as formal government (Beyley and Shearing, 2001,p5). They argue that the new developments make a distinction between ‘public’ and ‘private’ police, problematic and hence ‘it is more accurate to characterize what is happening as ‘multilaterisation’ in the governance of security rather than the privatization of policing’ (p, 5). They further argue that ‘multilaterisation’ of policing not only involves local private providers but also incorporates the activities of well-established non-governmental policing agencies who have transnational auspices. However, Jones and Newburn (2002) observe the transformation of policing as ‘a part of long term formalization of social control’ and associate them with primary and secondary social control activities. All these debates indicate that policing the private space largely relies on private providers in order to protect the property and to safeguard their individual interests.
Private policing is distinct in it operational approach as it enforces an order signified by the exclusion and regulation of access while the governmental providers do it through punishing the offenders. This is achieved through a series of situational crime prevention and opportunity reduction techniques often identified with private security. SCP methods would either remove crimes from an area or reduce criminal rewards. Since this paper does not intend to adopt a case study approach on each of the criminal incidents referred elsewhere, only a general discussion is attempted.
The lessons that Wafi and other cases of property crimes in UAE, give clear direction to both police and private security agencies to equip their personnel with appropriate awareness on the new criminal trends. Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan’s response to the situation; “we are seeking to learn lessons from what had happened” (Gulf News Daily dated 24/04/07) has been well up to the professional standards of Dubai Police. The words sound his action plan. Though relatively a small group, they have proven their ability to keep this society crime free, a remarkable achievement many police organisations in a similar environment abroad can not claim. His immediate decision to associate armed police agents in the private spaces used by the public should be viewed as daring in both policing and commercial contexts. The determined Police Chief allayed the initial concerns of the corporate community in this respect, and argued that his men are capable of mitigating any risks that may concern the commercial interests. Here, the following academic references are worth quoting; “The state sovereignty in the ‘new’ public spaces can be either enhanced or modified by the needs of the corporate capital, which is ultimately exercising its rights as property owner to define what type of behavior is acceptable within its premises. The effect of this phenomenon has been studied by others, and as Shearing suggests it creates a great deal of confusion and anxiety” (Nina and Russell, 1997). Elsewhere Nina and Russell argue that “private and public policing developed a different relationship of complementing each other within the criminal justice system. However, the fundamental difference was, and still remains, that although in principle guaranteeing an equal order, both entities differ greatly in the nature and the content of their approach when engaged in security activities” (Nina and Russell, 1997).
A close examination of the modus operandi of several criminal incidents in the recent past gives the impression that most of them were scattered incidents that originated from within UAE except 15/4 Wafi. It might give a relief to law enforcing authorities in this country, but there is evidence that transnational organised criminal gangs look towards UAE for their operations because of lack of fear of crime among the public and easy access. One of the safest societies in the world, the UAE needs a comprehensive strategy to create awareness among the citizens particularly the youth on the issues like crime and victimization, fear of crime etc and to educate them on their responsibilities as a citizen to contribute to policing the state. Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan did not hide his concerns on the attitude of the youth who were present at Wafi on that 15th April. “What hurts me as Dahi and Police Chief is that a group of Emiratis and youth sitting in the coffee shop near the jewelry store did not call 999 nor did they close the door and prevent the perpetrators from running away” (Gulf News dated 24/04/07).
Whilst the above paragraphs reflect the police response, nothing significant came out from the non-state policing agencies (private security). An empirical observation might point to the fact that the private security agencies largely remain compartmentalized in their operations presumably due to the commercial interests. Though the Department of Protective Systems successfully initiated a comprehensive standardization programme, they failed to create an interactive platform for the private security companies registered with them. Serious thoughts should be put in to the formation of such a body that can support the police tactically and to perform as a “self-help group” among the authorised security companies. The police security teams in the shopping malls and such other places would be used as nerve centers of public police private security interaction. If organised successfully, Dubai Police would be cited as a case of example of effective public police private security relationship against one of the major observations made by academic criminologists that “ the distinction between public police private security has always been problematic”(Shearing and Stenning, 1983).
The visionary His Highness Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and the Prime Minister of UAE and the Ruler of Dubai has provided enough space for security in his historical “UAE Strategic Plan”. His ability to transform vision to a way of life reassures the people of UAE and policing the UAE would be a greater task in the days to come.
References
Bayley, David H and Shearing, Clifford (2001) ‘ The New Structure of Policing: Description, Conceptualisation, and Research Agenda,’ Research Report, Washington: Office of Justice Programmes, U.S. Department of Justice
Jones, T and Newburn, T (2002) ‘The Transformation of Policing? Understanding the current systems in Policing Systems’, British Journal of Criminology, (2002) 42:129-146
Nair, SKS (2005) ‘Security Outsourcing: Advantages or Disadvantages? A comparative case study on the employee perception on the efficiency of Contract security and In-house security practices in Industrial sector in India.’ Research dissertation, Leicester, University of Leicester, Department of Criminology.
Nina, D and Russel, S (1997) ‘Policing “By Any Means Necessary”: Reflections on Privatisation, Human Rights and Police Issues- Considerations for Australia and South Africa’, Australian Journal of Human Rights, http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AJHR/1997/7.html(accessed on 22/05/07)
Shearing, Clifford D., Farnell, Margaret B. & Stenning, Philip C (1980) “Contract security in Ontario”, Toronto: Center for Criminology, University of Toronto
Shearing, Clifford D and Stenning, Philip C (1983) “Private security: Implications for Social control”, in; Social Problems, Vol. 30, N
■The author is a Postgraduate in Security and Organisational Risk Management from the Dept. of Criminology, University of Leicester, UK and an associate Member of International Institute of security, UK. Currently he is the Head of East Coast Security Services at Dubai. Email: sksn63@hotmail.com.
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