“Jeddah is a tourist attraction and receives hundreds of thousands of visitors during the summer,” said a police spokesman.

“This campaign is going to intensify this summer to ensure the safety of visitors. Secret police will be deployed in tourist attraction areas and around malls to prevent unwanted behavior that could harm citizens and tourists,” he said.

The plainclothes officers will contact the authorities about crimes taking place in the targeted areas before uniformed police step in to make arrests.

First Lt. Nawaf Al-Bouq of Jeddah police told Arab News that 36 suspects arrested during the campaign were wanted in criminal cases.

Citizens have been contacting authorities about the suspicious behavior of people in a number of locations. Police then made arrests after verifying the validity of these tip-offs.

Al-Bouq said that those detained had been arrested on suspicion of theft, bag snatching, liquor dealing, carjacking and harboring overstayers.