Best Practices: Contributing to the Global Police Community in the United Arab Emirates

Academic and practical publications have given limited attention to Middle East policing. This is a problem in the world of policing because countries like the United Arab Emirates are safe places in many ways. Which begs the question: How did police and law enforcement organizations in the Middle East achieve this enviable status?

As police organizations around the world grapple with growing demands on their time and resources, shared research and best practices are increasingly seen as an area in need of critical support. This comes as no surprise to those in strategic police leadership positions. The challenge is to obtain such research and findings to support the organization’s continuous improvement efforts and police reform deliberations.

The police and law enforcement challenges of managing public safety and complying with health and welfare protocols posed by the COVID-19 pandemic underscore the value and importance of understanding how others manage. The resulting surge in global scholarly publications assessing policing initiatives implemented to manage local COVID-19 pandemic concerns, not only for our police leaders, but also for our emerging leaders and relevant governmental and non-governmental Leaders create invaluable resource institutions.

From an advancing policing perspective, new ways of doing business for police have emerged, intentionally or not, in the COVID-19 response, exemplified by the digitization of standardized police services for the public and the digitization of internal police operations tasks such as develop.

What can police organisations learn from Abu Dhabi Police?

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, Abu Dhabi Police seeks to build community relations and public confidence. The force carried out 19 key diversity events and initiatives in Abu Dhabi in 2020, aimed at building consistent individual engagement between officials and the public.

For example, launching a “Home to Home” campaign, providing the public with 24/7 advice and guidance, and publishing educational messages in multiple languages. The ‘For Your Safety’ initiative focuses on distributing masks and gloves to residents of Abu Dhabi and Al Ain city neighborhoods. Abu Dhabi Police has provided instructions and advice on precautionary measures to avoid contracting the newly emerging COVID-19.

Such events involve officers from across the service and engage in face-to-face communication and interaction with the public. As a result, community satisfaction with police work in Abu Dhabi remains above 98% according to the most recent government survey (2016-2018 average of 98.47%).

The results of these activities are explored in the research article, “A Soft Power Approach to Influencing Police and Community Relations During COVID-19,” which is part of a special edition. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice. This edition highlights the work of Abu Dhabi Police in a range of policing areas, providing much-needed insight into “how others manage”.

This special edition, the first of its kind in the Middle East, showcases the value of investing in research and capturing advances in a range of industries and activities including artificial intelligence, information technology, data analytics and community-oriented programmes to build police/community relations and partnership. This edition shares lessons learned in implementing best practices to contribute to advancing police action in the global policing community.

_{Featured image: Islamic Decorations Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi via Max pixelPublic area}