Media statistical report on the safety and security index of Qatar

Decline of 49.2% in major crime rate than 2014 and 90.7% - 99.1% less than global rate).

* Decline of 3.5 % in the number of complaints received by state security agencies in 2015

* Security agencies arrest 590 suspects (including male and female) during their campaign against begging.

* Limited increase in number of crimes wherein the victims had role in their occurrence like Cybercrimes due to the spread of technology.

* Drugs: New accomplishments in regional and international cooperation with different agencies and world countries to prevent drugs.

Public Safety:

* Civil Defence: accomplishes best response time in reaching the fire scenes in the state.

Traffic:

* Decline in number of traffic violations and death rates due to road accidents

The Ministry of Interior accomplishes a record level in providing 103 services per minute through its different service portals, and completes more than 53 million transactions during 2015.

* More than 4000 services provided through the service sector for senior citizens and persons with special needs in order to make equal opportunities for all.

Community Relation:

* Constant communication through 6 languages, more than 400 meets and smart partnerships to realize shared responsibility in security measures.

* More than 18 million engagements with security and service related awareness topics through Ministry’s social media.

Human Rights Protection:

* Regular public satisfaction surveys and verification of more than 1600 complaints received from persons under sponsorships.

* All necessary services for temporary detainees in accordance to the international standards. More than 10, 000 travel tickets issued for those willing to return to their home countries.

* More than 35,000 appreciation letters for those cooperated in reporting incidents or crimes to National Command Centre.

Introduction:

The State of Qatar, represented by Ministry of Interior has marked a positive statistical indications for the security and safety system for the past year of 2015, according to the global indicators that measures the state of peace and security in different countries, which include the following aspects: major crimes, improving safety procedures, community partnership, statistics (number) of committed crimes in the community and the services provided by different departments, in addition to the aspect of improving security awareness among community members.

According to Global Peace Index, the State of Qatar was the first in the Middle East region through the past 5 years in terms of security, described as one of the most safe countries around the world, given the scarcity of violent incidents and low crime rate.

Figure 1

Decline in Crime Rate:

Ministry of Interior has achieved a qualitative leap in terms of public security aspect regarding the reducing crimes’ rates in 2015 comparing to 2014. Statistics showed a significant decrease in the number of lawsuits and cases of major crimes on the level of specialized security and geographic departments, where the total decline for the major crimes lawsuits ranged between 48% - 49.2% (49%). These crimes include murder, aggravated assault, rape, kidnapping, robbery, arson.

Regarding this aspect, Ministry of Interior achieved positive rates compared with global crime rate per 100,000. For example, robbery crimes rate was 99.1% less than global rate , while homicide registered 97.5% lower than global average. The remaining crimes registered a less average of 90.7% to 97.5% compared with global rate per 100,000 person.

The MOI statistics also shows a decline of 3.5% in rate of crime cases reported in 2015 compared with 2014 irrespective of population growth rate of 9.2%.

At the same, the some types of simple crimes wherein the 'victims' have a role in its occurrence due to their negligence or ignorance about it such as theft from transportation means and cybercrimes depending on population density and demographic characteristics within the purview of the security departments. In this regard, cyber-crimes witnessed a rise by (52%) in 2015 comparing to 2014, due to the spread of technology means and social media networks and

other tools as they used them without precautionary procedures required in dealing with new technology.

Some geographical areas witnessed a noticeable decline in crime ratios. Decline in lawsuits and major crimes ratio in “Capital Security Department” area, for instance, ranged between (69-73%), while “Dukhan Security” area didn’t report any lawsuit or major crime, which made decline rate of lawsuits and crimes to reach 100%. “Al Rayyan” and “Al Shamal” Security areas’ recorded a decline of 18% in crime rates.

Statistics also show a rise in the measures taken by the competent authorities in reducing new phenomenon like begging. Intensified drives and awareness campaigns with public participation resulted in capturing (590) defendants of begging, mostly from outside the country.

Statistics confirm the state of security and safety enjoyed by the State of Qatar and confirm at the same time the success of the Interior Ministry in providing and reassuring security strategy (2011-2016), which aims to achieve maximum security and stability levels, in line with the Qatar National Vision (2030) in the (Social Development ) aspect.

Refer the below diagram to figure out the Qatar crime rate per hundred thousand compared with global rate for the same.

Security Cooperation:

The statistics of the Ministry of Interior shows the increased activity in the field of international security cooperation, especially with organizations and law enforcement agencies including counter drug cooperation and reducing its access to the country in coordination with relevant countries by exchange of information with them to contribute in controlling and limiting the spread and promotion of the drug. This cooperation was resulted in increasing contact and cooperation points to 55 entities of Arab, regional and international nature and thus prevented smuggling of drugs into the country.

The concerned authorities of the Ministry of Interior received a number of letters of appreciation and gratitude for its involvement in seizure of narcotic substances and dismantling smuggling gangs by exchange information. The most prominent of these agencies include British National Agency for the fight against organized crime- NCA (National Crime Agency), the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

Public Security

The strategy of the Ministry of Interior draws special attention to overall public security to preserve the life and properties of the people, through the execution of laws and security standards and enhancing awareness programmes.

The average response time to any incidents and reach to the scene has decreased significantly. Emergency response time, which measures the time it takes to respond to those situations from time of receipt of the communication to the time of arrival of patrols to the scene in all parts of the country, the response time for fire accidents in 2015 was less with an average of (8 minutes) compared to (8.6 min) in the year 2014, taking into account the high number of incidents recorded in 2015 with an increase of (558). The total number of fire accidents reports in 2015 was (5483) while it was (4925) incidents in 2014, along with high population density.

Traffic safety indicators shows that the number of road accidents deaths for each 100,000 residents per year registered a decline of 4.8% in 2015. Traffic violations such as (wrong parking – no adherence to road markings – not leaving safe distance – not using seat belt) declined past two years by 4.7%, reaching (1,720,735) violations in 2015, compared with (1,805,072) violations in 2014.

The safety level of buildings and structures in the country was raised, where the number of premises that have been connected with Central Operations Room of the Ministry of Interior through the early warning system reached 3109, while the number of establishments the received certification for meeting requirements of prevention system and firefighting reached 4170 in 2015.

Rescue services continued very efficiently as 1170 security services were provided by the ministry including evacuation, security coverage and accompanying hazardous materials during past two years. This reflect the attention of the concerned authorities in utilizing specialist machinery and equipment with latest fleet of vehicles and modern centers and training facilities in accordance with the latest international specifications and standards , as well as the development of systems and procedures and raising the capacity of the human cadre working in the field of civil defense.

Public Services:

The surveys on the services provide by the Ministry of Interior during 2015, shows of satisfaction of customers within the ranges of (86% - 93%) for those services provided in various service centres, whereas the total number of surveys reached 24 surveys.

As part of the expansion of service centres, the total number of services centers scattered in different parts of the country reached 18. These centres provide services of immigration, traffic, criminal evidence and information, and nationality and travel documents.

At the level of electronic services, the total number of services available on Metrash2 mobile app reached more than 120 e-services while the services provided to the public

through e-channels suck self-service kiosks, MoI web portal and hukoomi website recorded a growth of 25%.

Number of individual subscribers to Metrash2 increased 24%, as well as 14% increase in subscription of companies. The total number of transactions made through Metrash2 reached to (1,276,326) with an increase of 119%.

Services Efficiency Rate:

The total number of transactions accomplished by the competent authorities of the Ministry of Interior in 2015 reached to 53,298,980, with a monthly average of 4,441,582 and daily average of 148,053. The average number of completed transactions every hour was 6159 with 103 transactions every minute.

The percentage of transactions made through service headquarters showed decrease in 2015 that reflects the

achievement of the strategy of the Ministry in decentralizing the services.

To provide equal opportunities to all the Elderly people and persons with special needs section presented almost 3900 services during 2015 comparing to 2014, in addition to the services provided by other portal like 992 emergency services for deaf and Amir service.

Technology Security:

The Ministry observed the development of the electronic services and use of modern technology in order to realize the strategic objectives of the Ministry within its five year planning(2011-2016). The key objective of this sector was to improve individual and collective skills to deal with the technological achievements in support to the security sector. In this regard the Ministry launched a number of Eservices and projects such as new Residency System, Security Coverage of Commercial Streets (QSSS) and other electronic services. Besides that a bunch of projects are ongoing like developing new website of the Ministry, paper less transactions project, “Talaa” Smart Traffic Camera project and renovating company registration.

Modern technologic systems were employed in the security control aspects in order to enhance safety and security measures in the State through different themes, as shown The strategy of the Ministry of Interior focused on extending its relations with the society in view of enhancing shared responsibility to ensure security through interactions with different community sectors including citizens and residents. According to the statistics about 1447 community programs were held in 2015, including meetings, visits and discussion sessions on different topics and issues that intended to make closer relation between Ministry and different segments of the society in order to spread the culture of security and stability in the society.

The Ministry held many educative and awareness programs on safety and security measures and fight against crimes at its different facets. Awareness lectures were held in all areas inside the country including government and other schools, public and private sectors, expatriate gatherings in different languages such Arabic, English, Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Nepali.

The range of programs including seminars, campaigns and other activities showed an increase of 50% in public sector and 60% as well as 50% in private sector and in accommodation sectors. Some of the major events in this regard included the 13th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Civil Defence Conference, Gulf Traffic Week an ITMA Congress.

The number of social media activists who engaged with the Ministry through digital media showed an increase of 80% which made great influence in decision makings of the competent authorities. The online campaigns held on social media (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) in six languages amounted 65 campaigns that reached to almost 17 million people, in addition to the 518,851 engagements (including likes, shares, retweets and comments).

Human Rights Protection

Consistent with the strategy of the Ministry to spread the culture of human rights protection the Ministry handled 1686 complaints and queries that connected with personal abuse during the year 2015.

The Ministry conducted more than 10 public satisfaction surveys to study about the public opinion on the dealing of the Ministry and handling the complaints as well as its level of competence to the international standards of human rights.

The Ministry published a guide on prisoners’ rights in accordance with the international standards and prepared a guide on the rights of the detainees according to the international agreements. Besides that it published 18 series of the important international and regional instruments of human rights as well as it organized visits of human rights delegates from UN and other agencies. Nine meeting were held in this regard with expatriate leaders in the country in 2015.

The Ministry also held 10 emergency visits to see and evaluate the conditions of the prisoners and detainees in

penal and correctional institutions as well as it conducted (383) training programs and workshops in order to rehabilitate and integrate them with the society.

The Ministry also held several sports and cultural activities for the inmates on special occasions like national day. The inmates were specially cared with good dealing and allowing them to participate in different activities. There were 343 family visits of inmates in 2015 whereas the families were allowed to visit inmates without limiting to certain days.

Based on human rights protection almost 8900 persons and companies that violated the laws and regulations were blacklisted or banned in 2015. Besides that 10,068 travel tickets were issued to facilitate traveling of some expatriates who were unable to pay their tickets in order to secure their permanent return to their home-countries permanently.

In addition the competent authorities conducted inspection campaigns to ensure the commitment of the people to the laws. 90 inspection campaigns were held during 2015 while 2145 persons surrendered in front of the security departments willing to leave for their native countries. A total of 30,874 persons were detained from the State because of violation to the laws and systems stipulated in the country.

Emergency Services (999):

The emergency number 999 received 1,943,653 calls during the year 2015 that include request for traffic services, diseases, injuries, complaints, fire incidents and other personal assistances.

The National Command Centre sent 35,260 appreciation letters to the public to value their cooperation and commitment with shared through informing the incidents although not being involved in the incidents.

Finally the Ministry of Interior emphasizes that this statistics would give proper clarity to themes of the Ministry’s strategy (2011-2016) and its competence to the Qatar National Vision 2030. It shed light to the safety and security conditions in the state of which its excellence is well proved by many global indexes in many aspects, reflected through comprehensive developmental programs conducted across the country.