Undercover "mystery shoppers" have been approaching police officers to test how helpful they are. The operation, disclosed by the Ministry of Interior, is part of a countrywide drive to ensure police are approachable and professional. Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, the Minister of Interior, also met on Tuesday with senior police officers from all seven emirates as part of his effort to raise standards. He told the officers he wanted their "productivity to double", according to a ministry statement.
"Sheikh Saif discussed the important issue regarding the project of mystery shoppers which aims to measure the services and productivity for customer services in the ministries," it said, adding that he called the meeting to spell out to them exactly how he wanted the departments to improve. The statement did not explain how police productivity would be measured. In April last year, the Government announced a so-called Mystery Shopper and Service Excellence Programme to test the customer service of various ministries and federal departments.
The Government did not reveal that it would also test the police. The one-year programme was launched on the order of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and is being overseen by the Cabinet. It is based on a similar scheme, called the Universal Model for Service Excellence, that has been used in Britain to measure how businesses perform. It measures organisations in five areas: policies, people, processes, premises, products and services.
Results are expected to be released this April. The director of the programme, Hannan Abdullah, could not be reached for comment. Sheikh Saif has previously called for the Abu Dhabi Police to be more accessible and earn the complete trust of the public. Last April, he ordered all officers in the capital to go out on to the streets and hand out their mobile phone numbers to people. The initiative was intended to encourage shopkeepers and other members of the public to call officers directly if they saw trouble. Lt Gen Dahi Tamim, chief of Dubai Police, who was at the meeting with Sheikh Saif, said his officers were always trying to be better.
"We welcome all efforts to improve our services because that's our goal. We are willing to learn better ways to improve our services because it is our strategic vision to become one of the best police forces in the world, so we are open for criticism," he said. Asked about the mystery shopper scheme, he said: "No one is perfect. We always need to review our performance. The more people who provide constructive criticism, the more doors will open for us."
myousef@thenational.ae