On 27 January 2026, Dubai issued Resolution No. (2) of 2026 Granting Law Enforcement Capacity to Certain Government of Dubai Officials. It looks administrative. It is not. In five short articles it converts a defined class of Dubai Municipality staff into judicial-seizure officers, wiring day-to-day municipal inspection directly into the machinery of statutory enforcement — and it should change how regulated businesses in Dubai think about who, exactly, is standing at their door.
What the instrument actually does
The Resolution was issued by H.H. Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Judicial Council, and is effective on issuance subject to publication in the Official Gazette (Article 5). Its operative core is narrow and deliberate: it does not create offences. It designates officials — ma'muri al-dabt al-qada'i, officers of judicial seizure — empowered to detect, record and evidence breaches of existing law.
Article 1 grants that capacity for three instruments: Law No. (18) of 2024 on Waste Management, Law No. (5) of 2025 on Public Health in the Emirate of Dubai, and Executive Council Resolution No. (14) of 2015 on hygiene-related violations. This is the load-bearing provision. An inspector's finding under these laws now carries the evidential weight of a designated enforcement officer, not merely a field observation.
Duties and powers — Articles 2 and 3
Article 2 imposes ten duties on designated officers: to comply with the legislation, verify compliance by regulated persons, record violations, receive complaints, preserve evidence, prepare reports, and act with "integrity, honesty, impartiality and objectivity." These are not decorative. They are the procedural guardrails against which a defence can later be tested — a report that departs from them is vulnerable to challenge.
Article 3 is the one businesses must read closely. Designated officers may:
- seek the assistance of police personnel where required;
- engage experts and interpreters where required;
- hear and record the statements of reporting persons and witnesses; and
- conduct inspections, pose questions, seek clarifications, and access authorised places.
The power to compel police support and to enter authorised premises means a municipal inspection is no longer a purely advisory encounter. Article 4 tasks the Director General of Dubai Municipality with approving officers' identification cards and the standard violation-report templates — so the practical test of legitimacy at your premises is now specific: a valid card and a prescribed report form.
The Resolution does not change what is prohibited. It changes who can prove it against you, and how quickly a complaint becomes an evidenced case.
Penalties, grievance and appeal — read the parent laws
Because the Resolution is a designation instrument, the sanctions, grievance windows and appeal routes sit in the underlying legislation, not here. Fines and administrative measures for waste and public-health breaches flow from Law No. (18) of 2024 and Law No. (5) of 2025 and their executive resolutions; grievances against a municipal administrative penalty are pursued first through Dubai Municipality's internal grievance mechanism within the statutory period, before recourse to the competent Dubai Court. Practitioners should map the specific fine schedule and the exact grievance deadline for each parent law rather than assume a single route — the timelines differ by instrument.
The macro picture: enforcement by platform
The Resolution's operational partner is Eltizam, Dubai Municipality's smart reporting platform, through which both designated officials and members of the public can log practices affecting the emirate's urban environment. Director General Marwan Ahmed bin Ghalita framed the officer list as "a strategic step in developing Dubai's smart oversight system." Read together, the instrument and the app reveal the direction of travel: community-sourced detection feeding designated-officer enforcement, with a documented evidential chain from the outset.
This is consistent with a wider Dubai pattern — decentralising enforcement capacity into the sector regulators and municipal bodies closest to the conduct, while standardising the procedure so that findings are court-ready. For regulated businesses the implication is concrete. First, front-line municipal contact now has legal teeth; treat every inspection as an evidence-gathering event and preserve your own contemporaneous record. Second, the crowdsourced entry point means exposure is continuous and low-friction — a photograph from a passer-by can begin a file. Third, compliance posture should be built around the parent laws' actual obligations, because that is where liability crystallises. The prudent response is not alarm but process: verify officer credentials, cooperate within Article 3's defined bounds, insist on the prescribed report form, and calendar the grievance deadline the moment a penalty issues.
Sources: Dubai Legislation Portal, Resolution No. (2) of 2026 (Articles 1–5); Emirates24|7; Gulf News; Economy Middle East. Underlying instruments: Law No. (18) of 2024 (Waste Management), Law No. (5) of 2025 (Public Health), Executive Council Resolution No. (14) of 2015. This briefing is general information, not legal advice; obtain specific advice on any matter.