24 Karat Security

“In the past 17 years I have not turned off my mobile phone,” says Mahmood Amin, Chief Executive Officer, Group Security & Dubai Security Services, who often receives phone calls in the middle of the night. “But all the time I am smiling when I answer it,” he adds.

Mahmood Mohd. Amin, Chief Exec Officer, Group Security & Dubai Security Services

It’s no surprise Amin receives calls at all hours, considering he heads the security department for over 50 of Dubai’s most important organisations, including DP World, JAFZA, Dubai Maritime City, Tejari, Istithmar, Port Zayed and Dubai Drydocks World.

The UAE national, who started his career as an engineer for Dubai Aluminium, says he never stops thinking about security, even when he is spending time with his three daughters, whose ages range from three months to seven years. “I don’t talk to them about security, but I know how to drive them to do things in a secure way,” he explains. “I tell them, ‘If you walk here, your shoes will be dirty, then I will not let you into the house.’ But my point is security – that the grass is wet, and they might slip.”

Having attended over 970 seminars on the subject, Amin says you can never have too much security. “Security is like gold. Anything you pay for to be more secure is like gold,” he says.

“I’ve come to know that this is the place you can always make changes,” he says. “There are always new policies, new procedures, different activities; instead of a routine job where you sit looking at documents coming in which are always the same. It’s also a good way to help a lot of people, support a lot of people.”

Amin says his organisation wants to set Dubai’s security standards above all others, and is looking into technology such as biometrics, which involves facial recognition and fingerprinting.

“Everything has become electronic,” he says. “Security today is not carrying a gun around in your pocket and running around. Security today is perimeters and systems, which will allow you or stop you depending on whether or not you are authorised.”

He says Dubai’s greatest security challenge is conforming to both European Union and United States standards. “Europe is going one way, and the US is going the other way,” he says. “If they could just bring their policies together, to become one policy and one standard, then security can streamline it’s operations and fully support business."

Amin says Dubai’s greatest danger is not terrorism or nuclear obliteration, but rather traffic accidents. “Our biggest threat is the some of the drivers’ educations,” he says, explaining that his department has worked with Dubai’s Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) department to improve road signage. “We found the solution, that pictures work better than writing,” he says proudly.

He says the emirate is one of the safest places in on earth. “Thank God, the past has been kind with no major incidents," he exclaims. “We want to tell everyone we are working to maintain this security record through becoming even more advanced in our systems and processes.”