ABU DHABI // As crimes take new and different forms, so must police tactics, the city's top law-enforcement official has said in a rare interview.
Far from simply patrolling the streets or relying on tips, officers must attack their beats in unusual fashions, ranging from posing as customers in search of "fortune-telling" to simply reading newspaper advertisements carefully, said Col Maktoum al Sharifi, the director of the Capital Police and former chief of the criminal investigation department (CID).
"Crimes are like a germs," he said. "If you treat them with an antibiotic, the germs gets used to it and becomes stronger, and this antibiotic does not work.
"As a security authority, you should be an antibiotic that is adaptive, or you have to have different antibiotics. So we do not use one particular thing and not do another. Depending on a single measure does not work."
Using more unmarked cars is one way the police can keep an eye on illegal activities, he said. Thirty to 35 undercover vehicles patrol the island, he said, looking for people who would ordinarily scatter if they saw a regular police car.
Such tactics have been especially successful in fighting illegal immigration, he said.
"Usually, those people live on stealing, shoplifting, pickpocketing," he said. "Unmarked cars focus on people who engage in suspicious activities, when they are present in dodgy places.
He noted that the fine for employing an illegal immigrant is Dh50,000 (US$13,600), and added: "It is a big case. It is a national-security issue."
Foot patrols by community policing officers dispatched between 9 and 11pm, when people are still out in the streets, are an important part of the effort too.
Col al Sharifi said fraud had been successfully addressed through monitoring adverts on the internet and in newspapers.
"Some people who placed ads in newspapers were arrested for fraud," he said, and cited an example. "There were a group of people who tried to swindle people by selling flats in Egypt. They were arrested after they placed fake ads in newspapers here."
Police checked with the Egyptian authorities and discovered that the flats advertised did not exist. After receiving clearance from prosecutors, they arrested the people who placed the ads.
"We do not monitor all ads, of course," Col al Sharifi said. "We cannot claim we can cover the sun in one hand, but there are people who are working hard on this."
Another form of fraud fortune-telling for a fee sometimes requires officers to go undercover and try to find those purporting to see the future.
A bit further out on the quasi-spiritual plane are cases of what Col al Sharifi described as "sorcery".
"They trick people claiming they will cure them from infertility, or from the evil eye," he said.
He said most perpetrators are expatriates without jobs who "opened a book about fortune-telling and learnt a few tricks" and take advantage of the gullible.
Col al Sharifi said that serious law-enforcement issues were rare in the capital, in part because of the range of methods applied to combat them.
"Generally, when it comes to security due to the government's full support for security there are no security risks," he said. "There are no worrying phenomena such as those which take place elsewhere."
hhassan@thenational.ae
hdajani@thenational.ae
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The%20Little%20Mermaid%20
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Globalization and its Discontents Revisited
Joseph E. Stiglitz
W. W. Norton & Company
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
The Gentlemen
Director: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant
Three out of five stars
Dubai World Cup Carnival card:
6.30pm: Handicap (Turf) | US$175,000 | 2,410 metres
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas Trial Conditions (Dirt) | $100,000 | 1,400m
7.40pm: Handicap (T) | $145,000 | 1,000m
8.15pm: Dubawi Stakes Group 3 (D) | $200,000 | 1,200m
8.50pm: Singspiel Stakes Group 3 (T) | $200,000 | 1,800m
9.25pm: Handicap (T) | $175,000 | 1,400m
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Schedule:
Pakistan v Sri Lanka:
28 Sep-2 Oct, 1st Test, Abu Dhabi
6-10 Oct, 2nd Test (day-night), Dubai
13 Oct, 1st ODI, Dubai
16 Oct, 2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi
18 Oct, 3rd ODI, Abu Dhabi
20 Oct, 4th ODI, Sharjah
23 Oct, 5th ODI, Sharjah
26 Oct, 1st T20I, Abu Dhabi
27 Oct, 2nd T20I, Abu Dhabi
29 Oct, 3rd T20I, Lahore
