Dubai replaced the rule book in April 2025. Administrative Resolution No. 13 of 2025 approved the Preventive Systems Manual, it came into force on publication, and it repeals anything in the earlier resolutions and manuals that contradicts it. If your CCTV was designed against the old guidance, the design is not automatically compliant any more.

The manual runs to three parts: technical specifications for IP video, access control, alarms, locks, attack resistant glass and vehicle barriers; operational controls covering image quality, lighting, maintenance and prohibitions; and 43 chapters of requirements written per establishment type, from shopping malls and clinics to petrol stations, data centres and precious metals retail. The governing statute above it is Law No. 12 of 2016 on regulating the security industry in Dubai.

Below is what that actually means on a project, in the order a project has to satisfy it.

Approval comes before installation, not after

This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in the market. SIRA certifies the design first, then inspects the built system against it.

Security Plan Certificate. The drawings are submitted and approved before anything is installed. SIRA states a three business day turnaround, with a fee stack of AED 100 service, AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation.
Installation against the approved plan.
Security audit. A licensed inspecting party audits the installed system.
Security System Certificate. Issued on the strength of the approved plan certificate, stamped by both the security consultancy and the installation company, plus a successful audit report. Two business days, same fee stack.

Renewal later needs a successful audit report that is valid for at least six months. Certain elements need explicit prior written approval on top of the plan certificate: vehicle barrier locations and load calculations, integration of the video system with access control, alarms or building management through a PSIM platform, pan-tilt-zoom cameras in private areas, hidden cameras, roof mounted external cameras whose field of view crosses the site boundary, and wireless links carrying security traffic.

The manual says it plainly: everything in it is a minimum, and it is not permissible to depart from any of its provisions except with official approval from SIRA.

Only licensed companies and carded individuals may touch it

Law No. 12 of 2016 prohibits providing security services in Dubai without a licence, and the definition of a security service covers selling and installing equipment as well as consultancy. The implementing bylaw makes installing security devices its own licensed activity, separate from trading, technical survey, consultancy, system inspection and central station connection. It also keeps the inspector at arm’s length: system inspection cannot be combined with any other activity except consultancy, so the company that installed your system is not the company that signs off on it.

Individuals are licensed too. Security system engineer, inspector, technician and operator are distinct categories; SIRA registers the person and issues an identification card, valid for two years. Ask to see the cards of the people on your site, not just the company licence on the quotation.

The hardware is in scope as well. Devices go through SIRA’s inspection laboratory for type approval, a process SIRA says can take anywhere from one working day to eight months depending on complexity. Specifying a camera that has never been submitted is a quiet way to lose a programme date.

The numbers that decide whether you pass

These are the figures from the manual itself, not from a supplier’s brochure.

Retention: at least 31 days, at high quality, at no less than 10 frames per second. Motion triggered recording is allowed but must still produce roughly 70 percent daily coverage per camera at that frame rate.
ATM cameras in financial institutions: not less than 75 days. Other cameras at the same premises stay on the 31 day rule.
Live view: at least 25 frames per second.
Resolution: 1080p Full HD minimum, in colour. Live display is 1080p for a single camera and at least 2CIF on multi camera layouts.
Signal to noise ratio of at least 48 dB, and wide dynamic range of at least 110 dB anywhere the scene is backlit. Infrared with automatic day and night switching. Any camera mounted at 4 metres or higher needs remote zoom and focus.
Storage sized with 20 percent spare capacity, variable bit rate only, able to serve live view, recording and playback at the same time without degrading, and exports must play in a standard media player.
Uninterruptible power for at least 30 minutes on every recording device. Alarm control panels need at least eight hours of battery backup.
IK10 impact resistance, tamper and vandal resistant housings.
A separate, dedicated private network for the security systems only. IPv4 and IPv6, ONVIF 2.0, backbone redundancy, a network management system once you pass 200 connected devices, and no wireless unless SIRA has approved it.
Correct time and date across every system, matching reality.
SIRA approved warning signage at all main entrances and inside lifts.
An annual maintenance contract with a SIRA registered company, containing a preventive programme of no fewer than four visits a year.
Connection to the SIRA approved system integrity monitoring service, so a failed camera or recorder is known about rather than discovered during an incident.

Megapixels are not the test. Pixels per metre is

The part most quotations ignore is that the manual grades each viewing point by image classification, and each classification has a pixel density threshold measured at the subject, not at the sensor.

Inspection: at least 1000 pixels per metre
Licence plate recognition: at least 400 pixels per metre
Identification: at least 300 pixels per metre
Recognition: at least 125 pixels per metre
Observation: at least 62.5 pixels per metre
Detection: at least 30 pixels per metre
Monitoring: at least 12.5 pixels per metre

Then the sector chapters say which classification applies where. A financial institution, for example, needs identification at the entrances, recognition at the cashier and reception desks, recognition of the safe, monitoring of the main lobby, recognition of the face of anyone using an ATM, observation of the cash filling angle, and an external view of at least 110 degrees.

This is why a compliant camera can still fail. A 1080p camera meets the resolution minimum everywhere, and misses identification at a wide entrance because the lens and the mounting distance leave you with 180 pixels per metre on a face. The fix is a lens and position calculation per camera at design stage, which is exactly what the plan certificate is there to check.

Every mandatory clause is a failure mode

SIRA does not publish a list of the reasons systems fail inspection, and you should be sceptical of anyone who claims to quote one. You do not need it. Turn the mandatory clauses over and you have the checklist:

Installed by a company that does not hold the installing security devices activity, or by technicians without cards
Cameras or recorders that were never type approved by SIRA
An as built system that has drifted from the approved plan, usually because a containment route moved during fit out
Storage that cannot actually hold 31 days at 10 frames per second once real bit rates are measured
An entrance camera delivering recognition where the sector chapter demands identification
Security traffic sharing the office network instead of its own
No uninterruptible power, no signage, no maintenance contract, or a recorder clock that has drifted

What non compliance costs

Law No. 12 of 2016 sets fines of not less than AED 10,000 and not more than AED 500,000, and a repeat violation within one year doubles the fine, capped at AED 1,000,000. The specific per violation amounts are left to separate resolutions, and we could not find a published official schedule. Treat the itemised fine tables that circulate on supplier websites as marketing, not as law. The range above is the part that is written down.

The bigger cost is usually commercial rather than regulatory: a trade licence renewal, a landlord handover or an insurer’s condition that stalls because the certificate is not in hand.

How a compliant project actually runs

Survey the site and confirm which of the 43 establishment chapters applies to you. Design each viewing point to its required classification with the pixel density calculated, not assumed. Submit for the plan certificate and wait for approval. Install to the approved drawings, on a dedicated network, on uninterruptible power. Book the audit. Collect the system certificate. Then put the maintenance contract and the health monitoring connection in place on day one, because both are conditions of staying compliant rather than optional extras.

Lunet is a SIRA approved installer and we run this sequence end to end, including the paperwork. If you have an existing system and no certificate, the honest first step is usually a gap survey against the 2025 manual so you know what you are actually looking at. See how we handle security and surveillance, or talk to a Dubai engineer.

Sources

Written by the Lunet Computers engineering team in Dubai. Regulation changes; confirm the current position with SIRA or a licensed consultancy before you commit to a design.

SIRA CCTV requirements in Dubai: what the 2025 manual actually demands