Dubai unveils plans for floating, autonomous smart police station
Marie Donlon | October 21, 2019A rendering of the SPS. Source: Kleindienst GroupPlans for an autonomous, floating smart police station (SPS) off the coast of Dubai were recently unveiled at an international tech event held in the United Arab Emirates.
The autonomous floating SPS is the collective brainchild of the Dubai government, Dubai law enforcement and the Kleindienst Group, a construction firm responsible for the design and construction of Dubai's floating Seahorse Villas, which is a chain of floating homes that will serve to inspire the design of the future police station.
The unmanned police station will offer law enforcement services 24 hours a day, seven days a week to those at sea and to residents living on the World Islands, which is an artificial archipelago that is shaped like a map of the world, off the coast of Dubai. The services will reportedly include a range similar to those offered by conventional police stations, including crime reporting, traffic incident reporting, community services, criminal complaint filings, traffic fine payments and home security, among others — all of which are offered without human intervention.
Developers will transform an existing Seahorse Villa, which is a luxury floating home with underwater quarters, into the SPS. In addition to its menu of services, the structure will also allow for autonomous docking for boats and yachts to access the station. It will also serve as an example of sustainability as the structure will encourage the protection of United Arab Emirates' marine life.
Although the SPS will be the first floating police station in Dubai, it is not the first unmanned SPS. When it opens in early 2020, the floating SPS will be the fourth smart station in the city, the first of which opened back in 2017.
A model of the station was revealed at the United Arab Emirates' tech event Gitex 2019, held in Dubai during Oct. 6 - Oct. 10.