Beware criminals: Dubai’s first Emirati female forensic expert can decode culprit’s thinking

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Lina Al Amiri is the first criminal patterns analyst in the Middle East who joined the Dubai Police as an expert forensic psychological assistant, after being accredited by the American Academy of Behavioural Profiling. 

Major General Dr Ahmed Eid Al Mansouri, Director of the General Department of Criminal Evidence and Criminology at the Dubai Police, said: “The Dubai Police are keen to provide all cadres with specialised academic qualifications in all fields. 

Al Amiri joined the Dubai Police in 2013, when she worked for the Biology and DNA Department. In 2015, she moved to the Department of Criminal Psychology, Department of Criminology.”

Al Amiri said, “Criminal profiling may mean offender profiling, criminological profiling, criminal personality profiling or criminal behaviour profiling. It is a way used to draw a picture of the personal characteristics of perpetrators. This can be done in many ways. Some of these depend on experience only, and some on geographical statistics. In the last method, the criminal expert relies on guessing, not objectivity.”

Amiri has combined forensic sciences with a biology major and a criminology major, aiming to gain additional specialised knowledge.

She says: “First I completed my studies in Australia to specialise in criminal sciences. The university there offered me the chance to specialise in two fields.”

She pointed out that she had to study the case file, conduct ‘criminal’ interviews with children or adults, apply relevant tests, and finally write reports, which explain her opinion.

Recently, the Dubai Police won the EQFM Challenge for Diversity, Inclusion and Gender Equality for the initiatives launched by the Dubai Police Women Council that contributed to empowering and strengthening the role of Emirati women, and their inclusion into police work, in terms of police work and community happiness.

The award is part of the EQFM Challenges 2021 that evaluates organisations’ best projects or initiatives in one or more categories, including Circular Economy, Diversity, Inclusion and Gender Equality, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, lauded the Dubai Police Women Council on their achievement and praised their efforts in empowering and enhancing the role of women in various police fields, specialisations and positions.