diff --git a/pkg/cri/resource-manager/flags.go b/pkg/cri/resource-manager/flags.go
index a141309dc6..a2a6ba7006 100644
--- a/pkg/cri/resource-manager/flags.go
+++ b/pkg/cri/resource-manager/flags.go
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ type options struct {
 	RuntimeSocket       string
 	RelaySocket         string
 	RelayDir            string
+	AllowDocker         bool
 	AgentSocket         string
 	ConfigSocket        string
 	PidFile             string
@@ -46,6 +47,10 @@ type options struct {
 // Relay command line options.
 var opt = options{}
 
+const (
+	allowDockerFlag = "allow-docker"
+)
+
 // Register us for command line option processing.
 func init() {
 	flag.StringVar(&opt.ImageSocket, "image-socket", sockets.Containerd,
@@ -56,6 +61,9 @@ func init() {
 		"Unix domain socket path where the resource manager should serve requests on.")
 	flag.StringVar(&opt.RelayDir, "relay-dir", "/var/lib/cri-resmgr",
 		"Permanent storage directory path for the resource manager to store its state in.")
+	flag.BoolVar(&opt.AllowDocker, allowDockerFlag, false,
+		"Allow cri-dockerd/docker-shim as a CRI runtime. Usually this is not a good idea.")
+
 	flag.StringVar(&opt.AgentSocket, "agent-socket", sockets.ResourceManagerAgent,
 		"local socket of the cri-resmgr agent to connect")
 	flag.StringVar(&opt.ConfigSocket, "config-socket", sockets.ResourceManagerConfig,
diff --git a/pkg/cri/resource-manager/requests.go b/pkg/cri/resource-manager/requests.go
index a2146bc765..8f5efc1b2c 100644
--- a/pkg/cri/resource-manager/requests.go
+++ b/pkg/cri/resource-manager/requests.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ package resmgr
 import (
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
+	"strings"
 
 	criapi "k8s.io/cri-api/pkg/apis/runtime/v1alpha2"
 
@@ -28,6 +29,11 @@ import (
 	"github.com/intel/cri-resource-manager/pkg/cri/server"
 )
 
+const (
+	kubeAPIVersion    = "0.1.0"
+	dockerRuntimeName = "docker"
+)
+
 // setupRequestProcessing prepares the resource manager for CRI request processing.
 func (m *resmgr) setupRequestProcessing() error {
 	interceptors := map[string]server.Interceptor{
@@ -158,6 +164,18 @@ func (m *resmgr) startRequestProcessing() error {
 
 // syncWithCRI synchronizes cache pods and containers with the CRI runtime.
 func (m *resmgr) syncWithCRI(ctx context.Context) ([]cache.Container, []cache.Container, error) {
+	version, err := m.relay.Client().Version(ctx, &criapi.VersionRequest{
+		Version: kubeAPIVersion,
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, nil, resmgrError("failed to query runtime version: %v", err)
+	}
+	if strings.HasPrefix(version.RuntimeName, dockerRuntimeName) {
+		if !opt.AllowDocker {
+			return nil, nil, rejectRuntimeError(version.RuntimeName)
+		}
+	}
+
 	if m.policy.Bypassed() || !m.relay.Client().HasRuntimeService() {
 		return nil, nil, nil
 	}
@@ -898,3 +916,8 @@ func (m *resmgr) sendCRIRequest(ctx context.Context, request interface{}) (inter
 		return nil, resmgrError("sendCRIRequest: unhandled request type %T", request)
 	}
 }
+
+func rejectRuntimeError(name string) error {
+	return resmgrError("rejecting disallowed runtime %s, use --%s to allow it",
+		name, allowDockerFlag)
+}
diff --git a/test/functional/fake_cri_server_test.go b/test/functional/fake_cri_server_test.go
index 7945c885c1..69889e1688 100644
--- a/test/functional/fake_cri_server_test.go
+++ b/test/functional/fake_cri_server_test.go
@@ -31,6 +31,13 @@ import (
 	api "k8s.io/cri-api/pkg/apis/runtime/v1alpha2"
 )
 
+const (
+	fakeVersion           = "0.1.0"
+	fakeRuntimeName       = "fake-CRI-runtime"
+	fakeRuntimeVersion    = "v0.0.0"
+	fakeRuntimeApiVersion = "v1"
+)
+
 type fakeCriServer struct {
 	t            *testing.T
 	socket       string
@@ -125,7 +132,16 @@ func (s *fakeCriServer) callHandler(ctx context.Context, request interface{}, de
 // Implementation of api.RuntimeServiceServer
 
 func (s *fakeCriServer) Version(ctx context.Context, req *api.VersionRequest) (*api.VersionResponse, error) {
-	response, err := s.callHandler(ctx, req, nil)
+	response, err := s.callHandler(ctx, req,
+		func(context.Context, *api.VersionRequest) (*api.VersionResponse, error) {
+			return &api.VersionResponse{
+				Version:           fakeVersion,
+				RuntimeName:       fakeRuntimeName,
+				RuntimeVersion:    fakeRuntimeVersion,
+				RuntimeApiVersion: fakeRuntimeApiVersion,
+			}, nil
+		},
+	)
 	return response.(*api.VersionResponse), err
 }