Israel Police 

The Nabi Yusha Police Fortress (Metzudat Koach)
The Fortress commemorating the 28 soldiers who fell in the battle to take the fortress.

The Tigart Fortresses

Gradually the Mandate Police began and beleaguer itself for its defense.  It had been protecting the perpetuation of a social order that the local population was not in favor of.  In order to defend the British policemen from the local population, Tigart fortresses that could withstand attacks and shelling were constructed.  Some of these fortresses serve as Police facilities to this very day.

Policing and Security

Operations

The Forces are charged with a wide array of operations that include patrolling and maintaining public order, preventing offences against life and property, protecting internal security and guarding prisoners and detainees.

Nationwide operational units like the Sappers, helicopter crews, negotiators and the vehicle theft trackers are numbered among this array of policing and security entities.

Deployment

The Israeli Police force is prepared to deal with routine and emergency events.  For this reason, deployment activities are carried out that include:

• Situation Evaluations to allocate back-up forces for the various units.
• Training Exercises for the forces according to scenarios of possible threats (hostile terrorist activity, disruptions of public order, firing of missiles and chemical or biological weapon attacks). 
• Types of Resources and the Regulation of their Implementation (Helicopters, animals, trucks with high pressure water spray guns to disperse riots, surveillance equipment) to deal with incidents and occurrences.
• Deployment in Emergencies as a Police Force in support of the I.D.F.
• Gathering Reports of Irregularities in routine and emergency situations, processing and disseminating data to all the ranks while coordinating cooperation between all the agencies charged with protecting the country.

Field Patrols–the Hub of Police Action

The Israeli Police Force allocates large forces to crime prevention in the field, to safeguarding lives and property, to maintaining order and to guarding the safety and security of the public.  In this framework, the Patrols deal with violations that impinge on the quality of life (brawls, conflicts between neighbors, environmental transgressions, etc.) and come to the aid of the community.  The patrolmen provide close, direct service to the population of the country and, in fact, provide the basis for the operations of the other Police units.  The patrol offers service throughout the day and night and is the very heart of Police activity.

Special Patrols – Back-up Forces and Reserves

The Regional Patrol Units and the Border Police Patrol Units were founded to provide a localized operational answer to various Police objectives.  They are the primary forces of intervention in hostile incidents and events of mass disaster; wage a concentrated battle against incidents of crime and in specifically defined crime locations and respond to public disturbances.  These patrol units provide back-up and reserve forces to all the units of the Israeli Police Force.

Assistance from Animals

The Israeli Police Force has a troop of dogs that come to the aid of the various units in the criminal and security fields.  In this tradition, the Police are assisted by dogs to sniff out missing people, drugs, explosives and bodies in buildings destroyed by fire.  Another detachment that aids the Police is the Equestrian Unit.  The troopers' activity is focused principally on dealing with public disturbances, securing holidaymakers at the seaside, patrolling rural and urban areas (where hundreds who cross the border and remain in the country illegally are arrested), as well as locating stolen vehicles and other stolen property.

Enforcement

The Police Force is also required to enforce Court decrees of various kinds by virtue of its responsibility to uphold and enforce the law of the land.  Among these duties are collection of debts and fines, serving orders to appear in Court for child support or criminal offences.

Marine Policing

Marine policing units deal with rescue (thousands of people annually), with enforcing seafaring safety laws and criminal incidents at sea.  The Marine Police are spread out over six bases:  four of them are on the Mediterranean, one at the Lake of Galilee and one at the Red Sea.

Escorting and Securing Detainees

The Police Force escorts detainees to Court and holds them in detention pending trial (after confirmation of their arrest by the Court).

Securing Educational Institutions and Public Transport

The Israeli Police force allocates special squad cars to secure educational institutions and public transport that patrol near schools and pick-up stops in order to uncover terrorist and criminal activity ahead of time.

Similarly, the Police Force is charged with guarding citizens at institutions, while training under its supervision, who are legally licensed to bear arms.  The Israeli Police Force works closely and continuously with security officers at the local authorities, the transportation companies and the Ministries of Education and Transportation.

Supervision of the Securing of Government Institutions

The Israeli Police Force supervises the training of security officers at Government Offices and Companies.  Similarly, training exercises are arranged by the Police in close cooperation with additional security agencies in order to examine the level of preparedness of these and other

Institutions to deal with irregular events.  Every Police Station has a Station Security Officer, who is responsible for coordinating all the civilian bodies in matters of security.  The Israeli Police Force broadens its working relations in this matter and strengthens its partnerships with security officers at the Local Authorities, Government and Public offices and Government Corporations.

Business Licensing

The Israeli Police Force instructs businesses requiring licenses as defined in the Law of Business Licenses, supervises and inspects them.  The licensing procedure is carried out after the business complies with the criteria of public safety (emergency exits, emergency stairs, type of structure, means of protection, etc.)

Handling and Preventing Acts of Sabotage

The Israeli Police Force is arraigned to deal with incidents of sabotage and to act to prevent them.  This definition includes many and varied activities from to gathering and processing technical intelligence in the sphere of explosive charges, feeding the various security forces with this information as well as dealing with incidents and the technical investigation of the explosives, consistently aiming to improve the ability to confront similar incidents in the future.  There is close cooperation world-wide with parallel organizations to prevent terrorist activity and to provide wide varieties of security and protective services. 

This work includes dealing with calls from the public to examine suspicious articles and vehicles, explosive envelopes, booby-trapped vehicles as well as anonymous warnings of concealed bombs.  Beyond that, inspections are initiated to check bus stops, pick up points, markets, beaches, public centers and likely locations for terrorist activity.  Police Sappers save many lives by detonating dozens of explosives each year. 

Handling Explosives

Forensic Sabotage labs that are spread out all over the country deal with the sites of the incidents where explosives were involved.  This is done by gathering on-site evidence, preserving the site, preparing expert opinions for the Court and technical reports regarding the explosive devices for the Sapper Units in the field and more.

Developing Safety Measures

The Israeli Police Force works to develop new and unique measures that will answer the operational demands of the nature of police work in Israel.  Professional people persevere in the development of many projects like increasing the safety of the sappers, developing various attack and diffusion measures and designing reliable and efficient robots that can deal with large explosive devices.

Communication in Crises

Professional officers, mostly with academic qualifications in Psychology and the Behavioral Sciences, who have negotiation and field experience, operate in this area.  They deal with criminal incidents that occur against a background of various kinds of crisis (attempted suicides, holding of hostages, kidnapping and extortion, etc.)  In many incidents, the motive is unique and transient.  A positive solution through communication steered by people in the negotiations unit is likely to enable the people involved in the affair to step back into a normative social circle and behavior mode.

Policing the Skies

The Bell 206 helicopters and a fixed wing plane that are adapted for police work are additional partners of the Israeli Police Force.  Their activities include catching car thieves, locating border infiltrators, enforcing traffic rules, including the rules applying to motor cyclists and dune buggy drivers, peace-keeping assignments, security and patrol assignments, apprehending agricultural and earth robbers, drug raids and photographic assignments. 

In addition, the pilots are called out to deal with fires, to search for missing persons, follow up on robberies and kidnappings or chase after people who break through road blocks.  The pilots of the helicopter unit participate in the routine assignments of the Border Police to prevent mass infiltration of unlicensed workers from Judea and Samaria and Gaza into Israel.  The helicopter activities are mostly carried out in cooperation with ground forces.  In many assignments the actions of the helicopter are integrated with an "Air Patrol" officer from the same unit that is cooperating in the operation, who serves as a contact man between the pilot and the squad car in everything connected to locating and placing road blocks and the escape routes of the suspects.  In these assignments the advantage of height, peripheral vision and speed of response all help the commanders in the field.

Coordination and Control of Special Units

A Headquarters was established to deal with coordinating and controlling the special units in the Israeli Police Force (the Terror Combat Unit, the Airborne Unit, the Negotiations Unit and additional units).  The Headquarters develops combat doctrines, puts them to the test and structures training exercises involving cooperation between the units.  

Coping with Vehicle Theft

The Israeli Police force operates a countrywide operation that coordinates the handling of the plague of vehicle theft (including formulating policy and instructing the units in the field).  In this work, emphasis is placed on gathering intelligence, raiding the "vehicle dismantling slaughterhouses" and apprehending stolen vehicles and parts. 

Investigation and the War on Crime

Investigation is one of the central activities in the Police's work in law enforcement.  Among the activities of the Police in crime investigation are: the running of interrogations in the carious spheres of crime,  lawbreaking and fraud, uncovering felonies, discovering criminals and bringing them to trial, forensics, operating scientific and technological methods of gathering evidence, taking care  of delinquent youths and crime victims, searching for missing persons, etc. 

Outstanding Trends in Investigation

• The ingenuity of the criminal adversary – most fields of crime, like drugs, major fraud, and computer aided crimes, economic misdemeanors and felonies associated with more sophisticated criminals have begun to be nourished by wealthy sources that finance a wide variety of areas of criminal endeavor.
• Increased demand for Police services – as a result in the increased level of sophistication of the crimes.
• Increased lawlessness from the areas under the rule of the Palestinian Authority – criminals under the rule of the Palestinian Authority cooperate with criminals who are citizens of Israel, especially in crimes connected to vehicles, drugs and the agricultural sector.
  
  
  
• Israeli Crime Abroad – there has been an increase in misdemeanors committed by Israelis abroad, especially in the area of drug trafficking and associated fields (violence, murder, robbery and money laundering) which has resulted in a broadening and upgrading of police activity in that sphere.

Professionalism in Investigation and Prosecution

The Israeli Police Force ascribes great importance to guiding and instructing investigators and prosecutors, while supervising and controlling their work.  Emphasis placed on the professionalism of the investigators has proved itself in the improved results in locating missing persons, in gathering criminal information, in executing work at Headquarters to shape investigation and prosecution policy, in providing expertise in investigative matters and in dealing with applications to the Ministry of Justice in matters of postponing legal proceedings, appeals and clemency. 

Investigations Branch

The development of advanced computerized systems to assist in the work of investigation, the establishment of unique investigative systems in dealing with offences that demand specialization,

supervision and control of the work of the investigators and training the investigators in matters requiring specialized professional knowledge.  In addition, the Investigation's Branch develops reciprocal relationships with other authoritative bodies while providing services to a wide public.

The Prosecution Branch

The Prosecution Branch is the Headquarters unit of Police prosecutions that is charged with supervision and control, determining a uniform professional policy and developing infrastructure, equipment and standardization of human resources at the eleven district/regional prosecution bureaus.  Similarly, the Branch represents the Israeli Police force at appearances before parliamentary committees, the Legal Advisor to the Government, the Attorney General, the Minister of Internal Security and other government and judicial agents, at regular legal procedures, with regard to questions of policy of investigation and prosecution as well as in giving expert legal opinion with regard to specific cases.
 

Youth Branch

Besides implementing its defined roles, the Youth Division works to strengthen the connections with agents in and out of the Ministries.  This trend is based on the concept according to which resources should be conserved to work together out of a comprehensive systemic perspective where the good of the minor is the central focus.  In this framework, the Israeli Police Force is a partner in operating several programs.

The ASA Project (Violence, Drugs and Alcohol) – Steering committees that operate and the police station, regional and district and nationwide levels in partnership with all the agencies that operate in this field.

Cede (Family Discussion Group) for Delinquent Youth – an alternative to prosecution where the delinquent youth is introduced to the victim of his crime.

Protective Centers for Minors who have been Victims of Crime  (Assisted by Ashalim and the Joint).  These locations gather all the agents of investigation, diagnosis and therapy that the minor, who has been the victim of sexual offences or acts of violence has to come into contact with under the one roof.

Escorting minors who have been hurt and witnesses (in cooperation with the Child Welfare Council).

The Integrated Safe School – Activities carried out in High Schools by Youth Counselors working together with other agencies in the Community.

Missing Persons

The Israeli Police Force invests considerable effort in locating missing persons and identifying unknown/anonymous people. Any report of a missing or unidentified person made at any police station is immediately transferred to and handles by the unit that thoroughly and speedily investigates the case in order to protect the public and save human lives.

The missing persons bureau in the 'Department of Investigations and Prosecution at the Central Headquarters coordinates the handling of cases involving missing and unidentified persons, advising, guiding, controlling and aiding the investigation units in the field. 

The Criminal Information Branch

The Criminal Register and Rehabilitation of Offenders Law, 5741-1981, places the responsibility on the Police for managing and updating the Criminal Register.  In this framework, the Israeli Police Force also administers the records in closed investigation files and suspended trials and investigations facing an individual.  The Criminal Information Branch deals with all aspects connected to administering the Criminal Data Bank and to keeping it up to date. The Branch is responsible for transmitting information from the Bank to the bodies entitled to receive it according to law.

Training Center

The Training Center of the Investigations Branch provides further training and seminars to investigators and prosecutors in all the fields of investigation as well as interrogation workshops, burnout on the job workshops and service to raise the professional and service level of the investigator as well as testing his knowledge and qualifications.

The Center also serves as a hub of information in the field of investigation and provides an answer to the professional problems of the investigators, updating them on judgments and changes in the law, providing theoretical material for study and enrichment and guidance in preparing for examinations. 

The Computer Section

The Computer Section trains the investigators and prosecutors in the Israeli Police Force in order to afford them the maximum benefit from the online computer systems/mechanized computer systems for the purpose of investigating and locating suspects.  The computerized systems include information on people, vehicles and weapons.  The Computer Section also handles requests from various different agencies with regard to members of the population in the territories who are prohibited from entering Israel.

The Forensic Department

The Forensic Department is charged on collecting items of evidence from crime scenes and suspects by scientific and technological means.  The Department is also responsible for scientifically identifying victims in the event of a disaster by means of fingerprints, D.N.A. and other means.

These methods decrease the dependence on evidence from eye-witnesses and suspects and provide a solid basis for investigation and deliberation in court.  The criminals' fingerprint and D.N.A. banks help to identify the offender from data he leaves behind at the crime scene and may also make  any further investigation unnecessary.  Other tests make it possible to establish a suspicion that exists against a suspect by examining microscopic evidence that he carries on his person like, fibers, broken glass, specks of paint, etc.  On the other hand, forensic tests may also remove all suspicion from innocent suspects by means of D.N.A., polygraph and other tests.  The forensic labs are also responsible for identifying forbidden substances like dangerous drugs, explosives, poisons or counterfeit bank notes.

The forensic system includes the labs at the National Headquarters which employ scientists in the various scientific fields and forensic technicians, who are posted at all the police units and, are responsible for gathering specimens and evidence from the scenes of different crimes.  Similarly, these technicians perform a variety of tests at the local labs.  The forensic technicians' system and the mobile labs are charged with identifying disaster victims scientifically and have proved their efficiency, to our regret, in a long list of events in Israel and abroad where such identification was required.

Uncovering Serious International Crime

The Israeli Police Force devotes considerable attention to uncovering and investigating offences that occur beyond the country's borders as well as handling complicated security cases and assisting law enforcement agencies abroad.  In this respect, emphasis is placed on crime phenomena in which lurk the dangers of undermining the foundations of the rule of law, public order and economic stability.  

The guiding principles of the work in this area are: detection (undercover) and investigation (open).  Detection focuses on discovering organized crime rings by gathering intelligence and visible information and forwarding the processed information to the open Investigations Department which performs the unconcealed investigation and integrates and crystallizes the material into judicial evidence. 

Uncovering Corruption in Public Administration

An important target in police activity is the uncovering of corruption in public administration by high ranking public figures and their interrogation. Fraudulent and financial violations uncovered in this sphere are committed by sophisticated means and their investigation requires specialized expertise (as in computer fraud, and felonies that the Inspector General, the Head of the Investigations Division and the Legal Advisor to the Government instruct the Government to investigate, because of the sensitivity or complexity of the inquiries). 

In addition to setting up the inquiry, the Economic Investigations Wing is meant to provide a suitable professional answer to wide reaching financial offences.  The policemen who serve on this unit have expert education that can be implemented in this field of investigation into complex crimes of fraud. (accountants, lawyers, economists, experts in computers and public administration.)

Protection of Intellectual Property

The Israeli Police Force founded a special unit whose goal is fighting crime in the area of intellectual property theft and the enormous damage which caused to the national economy and the productive and creative sectors.  The crimes investigated in this field include the infringement of creative rights in music, literature, computer and video programs, cosmetics, alcoholic beverages, prohibited use of trade marks (in all consumer products) as well as fraudulent labeling of goods.  The unit has made it its goal to wage war on felons in this field by making raids and carrying out numerous arrests and by bringing the manufacturer, the importers and the sales and marketing people involved to trial.

Investigation of Prison Wardens

The National Unit for Investigating Prison Wardens investigates crimes committed by prison wardens in the Prison Service in the course of fulfilling their duties, both resulting  from complaints by the prisoners and following intelligence information, collected and processed in order to open a criminal inquiry.

Intelligence and Detection

The Israeli Police Force's Intelligence Department is responsible for activities like data collection, evaluation and research.  The Department carries out special operations and preventative activities to fulfill its obligations in the War on Crime, ensuring public order and internal security.

Similarly, the Intelligence Department is entrusted to crystallize a picture of the state of affairs at any given moment for those officers in the field and at headquarters who have to determine policy and operational concepts based on it.

 Alongside these roles, the Department plays a central role in exposing criminal and hostile activity, preventing it and secretly obtaining evidence of it.  This procedure is executed by collecting intelligence material, assimilating it as well as by research, evaluation and dissemination of the information as a basis for planning and guiding police activity.  The Intelligence Division was established in 1997 and together with it new departments and units were also set up.  

Research Department

The Research Department is responsible for assembling and disseminating the intelligence picture and assessment and the forecast with regard to crime as well as ongoing security and public order.  Similarly, this Department deals with applicable strategic research which functions to identify and point out trends and locate principal threats that the Police must face while it directs the collection of evidence to close information gaps.

The research infrastructure serves in organizing the basis for determining policy with regard to structuring a force and allocating resources as well as for prioritizing and ongoing operational activity.

The Intelligence Hub

The Hub functions to prepare the current real time picture of hostile terrorist activity and public order, including distributing a daily report summing up the events of the past 24 hours and providing an intelligence forecast for the immediate future.  The Special Services Department has the full responsibility to develop and manage the external intelligence relationships of the Israeli Police Force with foreign law enforcement authorities and agencies and managerial coordination in foreign affairs for other units in the Israeli Police Force.  The Department is also responsible for operational coordination between foreign agencies and the Israeli Police Force in detection and investigation operations.  Similarly, the Department has the responsibility of formulating policy regarding money laundering, directing the deployment of the district confiscation officers and the carrying out of being included at the border crossings.

The Israeli Police Force and the Ministry of Internal Security have 8 representatives operating outside the country.  These representatives constitute its long arm abroad, operating to thwart, prevent and fight Israeli criminals especially in the field of drugs and vice.  The Department of Data Collection and Technology has Headquarters' responsibility to deploy means of data collection, sources, agents, undercover wiretapping, technical surveillance, detection, and the data collection, specifies, issues and assimilates advanced technological methods of work into the detection and data collection system.

The Field Security Unit

This unit is responsible for safeguarding field security in the Israeli Police Force, for safeguarding information, for security screening and for preventing information leaks.

The Training and Combat Doctrine Unit – has the responsibility of training all the personnel in the various sections of Intelligence System (intelligence coordinators, detectives, appraisers/analysts, border patrollers).

Each year, new training programs are developed and taught at the Intelligence Training Centers in Holon and at the Border Patrol Training Center at the Ben Gurion Airport.  The Unit works in close association with training factors in the Israeli Police Force and other institutions.

The Intelligence Training Center

The Center was inaugurated in 2001 and is located in Holon.  Its function is to train officers and policemen in the various sections of the Intelligence System.

The Staff of the Center comprises people who have accumulated extensive experience in the subjects they teach.

The Border Patrol Training Center

The Training Center is located at Ben Gurion Airport.  Its function is to train the professional, practiced and high quality manpower required at all the border crossings in Israel ( air, sea and land) in order to fulfill the requirements of border control – which is to be the "screen" protecting the State of Israel.

The Surveillance Training Center

A unique center for the special training of surveillance personnel was established because of the necessity of safeguarding their hidden – the Center provides the surveillance personnel with basic to high level surveillance training. 

The Legal Advisor

The Legal Advisor is responsible for providing legal advice to the Intelligence Division as well as to the whole array of Intelligence Units in the field in various matter involved in Intelligence work, like: undercover wiretapping, operating and handling sources and agents. 

Traffic

The Traffic Department of the Israeli Police force deals with all urban and interurban transportation incidents with the aim of reducing road accidents and maintaining orderly movement on the roads by regulation, enforcement, the investigation of road accidents and bringing transgressors to trial. 

Enforcing Traffic Laws

Enforcing traffic laws and regulating the flow of traffic are managed by the Traffic System in the cities and by the Traffic Police in the interurban areas.

Thousands of volunteers assist the Police in this work and significantly increase its manpower.

The Unit to Prevent the Illegal Conveyance of Goods

The Unit to prevent illegal conveyance is a unit in the Israeli Voluntary Traffic Police that operates nationwide to enforce the law against the illegal conveyance of commercial goods.

Spotting unlicensed drivers – the disqualifying unit:  These units follow disqualified drivers who drive along Israel's roads in spite of having had their licenses suspended.  They document the activities of the offenders and swiftly bring them to trial.

The 2000 Traffic Hub

This Hub serves as country wide traffic control center while coordinating with all the agencies that play a role in operating the traffic system.  The Hub provides a solution to various traffic events, receives real time information about events in the field, controls, inspects and directs squad cars in real time, locating and directing the first response to irregular events.  Representatives of the Department of Public Works who are responsible for the nationwide system of traffic lights in the interurban areas, receive reports of obstructions on the roadways and deal with their removal, working in partnership with the Hub.  Another partner is the traffic report service center that broadcasts on the Voice of Israel.  Its representatives, serving at the Hub, receive real time information of events on the roads.

The Traffic Department

The Department bears professional responsibility for enforcing transportation regulation, for matters of engineering, prosecuting and investigating road accidents.

The Planning and Development Department

This Department is developing the traffic system and improving its methods of operation by long term management and training of human resources, and by accompanying the operation of the system with methodical research and technological development.

The National Fraud Investigation Unit

This Unit uncovers fraud in road accidents, whether the fraud concerns the details of the driver/vehicle involved in the accident or the number of people injured, the source of the injury or the fact of the occurrence of the accident.

Civilian Guard and Community Policing 

The Civilian Guard is a unique Israeli phenomenon arising from Israel's security reality.  The Civilian Guard was established in 1974 following a number of severe terrorist attacks that occurred that year (among them, the event at Ma'alot).  Nowadays, the Civilian Guard in the largest voluntary body in Israel.  In 2002 they numbered a record 70,000 volunteers who directly assist the Police Force in every field of its activities.  The volunteers operate along two tracks:

Civilian Security Guard

This activity focuses on preventing hostile sabotage and criminal activity with the help of vehicle and foot patrols, road blocks and securing local and wider based events.  The volunteers operate mostly in their own familiar residential neighborhoods, securing educational institutions and public transportation.

Special Units

Activity in this framework makes the cooperation of a variety of police roles possible in aiding the Police Force and the Border Police in their professional police activities like traffic control, patrols, youth units, identifying disaster victims, detection, rescue, diving, volunteering in the rural sector and in the Border Police, etc.

Volunteers to the Civilian Guard serve as vital multiplier of power to the Police Force that is heavily burdened.  They are the foundation upon which a firm partnership has been built between the Police and the community in the common effort to fortify internal security and the battle against crime and lawlessness.

Community Policing

The strategy of Community Policing that was adopted by the Israeli Police Force several years ago expresses a close partnership between the community and the Police in their common battle against crime and damage to the quality of life of the populace.  As follows from this way of thinking, the Community Police Division charts and leads the policy adopted by all the units at Headquarters and in the field, to create a partnership between them and agencies in the public, private and commercial sectors.  The object of the partnership is to create a repository of resources and budgets and provide services more effectively and economically to the resident.  An example of this is the close cooperation between the Community Division and the Civilian Guard that the NPO "Green Light" – a NPO working to change the culture of driving that characterizes Israeli motorists) and their  "quick response squad cars"  that are operated by the local authorities in conjunction with the Police Stations.  Community models – in the framework of community policing, various common projects are implemented by the Police and community agencies:  The model of "The Safe School" that deals with teenage lawlessness, the model of the group that aids the victims of crime and others.

Community Policing Centers

Hundreds of Community Policing Centers have been set up aiming to improve police services and making them accessible to as many members of the public as possible.  These centers have been established in distant communities, in the rural sector, in immigrant neighborhoods and Arab population centers.  The centers provide most of the services that the Police Force offers to citizens.  The Community Police operate in partnership with Civilian Guard volunteers and together with local communal organizations with the common goal of preventing crime and finding solutions for problems that bother the local inhabitants.

Information and the Police Internet Website

The Israeli Police Force makes use of internal and external means of communication to improve the struggle against crime and terrorist incidents.  The Community Division and the Civilian Guard produce video films on various police topics, hold exhibitions and publish informative and image enhancing material in order to strengthen the relationship between the Police and the population.  Similarly, the Division publishes the magazine, "Police Reflections"/"The Police Mirror" and an academic journal, "Police and Society".  Alongside this, the Israeli Police Force operates a communications strategy of promotional spokesmanship that serves to launch a campaign to widen the circle of volunteers in the Civilian Guard.  The Internet Website provides extensive information about the Israeli Police Force and on ways to enlist and join its ranks.  A webpage on the site "Police News" publishes news updates from all over the country.  The Website includes interactive systems, through which the public may approach the Police on every matter, provide information anonymously, complain against policemen and download forms on various topics.  The Website also has sections in English, Arabic and Russian.

The Israeli Police Orchestra

The Police Orchestra was founded in 1921 in the framework of the British Army.  Today the orchestra performs all over the country and plays an important role in many State functions and Police ceremonies.

Planning, Organization, Computerization and Budgeting

The Planning and Organization Division coordinates the work of Headquarters and Planning of the Israeli Police Force and is responsible for the development of technological infrastructures, the management of information repositories and their analysis for the purpose of managing its resources.

Planning and Strategic Management

The purpose of the Israeli Police Force is to improve its capacity to confront the problems of policing in the fields of crime and lawlessness, while it deals with the threats in the sphere of internal security.

The unit for strategic planning works to improve the level of police service to the public, shifting its resources from the management sector for the benefit of the work at hand, to organization and professional efficiency, turning over jobs to the civilian sector and obtaining services from outside the establishment, strengthening Police Stations with manpower and authority, decentralizing police services by means of Community Policing Centers and other changes.

Standardization and Organization

In this area emphasis is placed on formulating principles to organize and establish the police units, determine their goals, roles and organizational structure.  Organizational inspections that also help to prepare orders and arrange their publication are held for ensuring the functional efficiency of the Police units.

Budget Planning

The allocation of resources and the preparation of operations at Headquarters to locate spots which need to be made more efficient and more frugal.

Performance Analysis and Statistics Department

in order to develop tools and infrastructures for planning and developing statistical data repositories and analyzing them, this Department strives to develop models and indices for allocating resources, performing Headquarters work according to work procedures and standardization of the units and systems of the Israeli Police Force, accompanying technological projects with organizational vision, carrying out statistical studies to identify trends and phenomena that show up in the repositories of statistical data, answering statistical queries from all the Israeli Police Force agencies at home and from abroad.

Publicizing Police Commands and Orders

This refers to the consolidation of "Police Orders" (the principles guiding police work), and "National Headquarters' Commands" (the rules of police work) and publicizing them.

Technology, Communication and Computerization

The purpose of the Technological Administration is the implementation of the principle "technology at the forefront of the Police".  The activities of this Department include the Communications System, Electronics, Computerization and the development of weapons in the Israeli Police Force.

The Development of Computer Implementation/Application

Emphasis has been placed on the development of integrated computerized systems in order to fulfill the requirements of the specialized and administrative sectors of the Israeli Police Force.  The systems are implemented by combined and advanced technologies in topics like: investigations, intelligence, mobility, logistic systems and budgeting, etc.

The Development of Infrastructures

The development and maintenance of advanced hardware and software is an additional way of improving the technological resources of the Israeli Police Force.  These infrastructures make the dissemination of knowledge, the control of the country's borders and other things possible.

Communications

The Israeli Police Force has a communications system spread out over all its units and it is relied on for the operation and maintenance of Police communications:  The telegraph, telephone network and control centers. Security systems are installed in these networks to provide primary support services to the general system of computers and technology in the Police Force.

The Development of Technological Resources

In this field, considerable effort is being devoted to developing technological resources for the Police Units:  protective equipment, riot dispersal equipment, the means to identify forged documents and others.

Logistic Support

The Division for Logistic Support plans operates and maintains the logistics system of the Israeli Police Force.  The logistics systems at Headquarters and in the field are central to the development and advance of the strategic capability of the Israeli Police Force's level of service, its professionalism, quality and innovativeness.

Improving the Service within the Police Force

Improving the standard to Police service expresses itself in the more efficient logistic functioning of the whole Israeli Police Force.  

Quality Control

Internal and external quality control is carried out with the aim of improving Police productivity. 

Logistic Financial Planning

The Israeli Police Force in its responsibility for logistic planning makes maximum use of its resources and this is expressed in the development of implementable financial and organization models, the merging of logistic bodies within and outside (the IDF and the Prison Service) the Police as well by distributing the budget to the units.

Supplies Department

This Department is responsible for planning Police requirements for the issue of equipment and resources in its sphere of control, including acquisition, storage, maintenance and issuing of weapons and provisions to the units of the Israeli Police Force.

The Supplies Department is also responsible for publishing procedures for handling equipment, provisions and ammunition, supervises the controlled use of Police equipment and follows up and inspects stock taking in the units.  The Supplies Department manages two Police Hostels in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem and operates by means of two bases at Beit Dagan and Kiryat Haim.

Construction Administration

The Construction Administration is responsible for implementing perennial plans for building Police facilities.  The work of the Administration includes the management and coordination of professional factors and also the obtaining of permits and licenses and inspecting and following up on the planning and executions of the projects.

Building Department

The Building Department is responsible for all the landholding and leasing rights that belong to the Israeli Police Force, for managing maintenance charges (taxes, electricity and water), engineering planning and work estimates for the Building Department including inspection and follow up of the execution of building works in addition to obtaining permit and licenses for the relevant authorities. 

Transportation Department

The Transport Department handles the matter of Police transportation including orders, storage and allocation of new vehicles entering the Police service, maintenance of Police vehicles, withdrawal from service and the sale of vehicles from the Police fleet.  The Department also manages the fuel supply and inspects it, the licensing of police vehicles and drivers, including the operation of a team of traffic security officers, provide for their advanced professional training and supply means of transport for conveying Police goods.

 Purchase and Sales Department

This department is responsible for planning, publishing and analyzing tenders including connections with foreign and local vendors.  The work of the Department includes management and supervision of the supply of goods/services, and advice and direction to the purchasing departments.  The Purchase and Sales Department handles the sale of non-functional goods and the release of goods from Customs.  The Department's principle importance is the management of tender committees and representation on the waivers committee of the Treasury in the matter of Acquisitions.

The Department of Headquarters' Services

The Department of Headquarters Services is responsible for providing Headquarters' services to the Environment Protection Agency in the spheres of transportation, warehousing, armories, archive centers, etc.   The Department deals, amongst other things, with arranging conventions and ceremonies and national sports days.  In addition, the Department of Headquarters' Services attends to the maintenance system and refurbishing of the National Headquarters' bases in Jerusalem, Ramle and others. 

The Economic Planning Unit

The Economic Planning Unit at the Logistic Support Department is responsible for providing help to integrate the sections of the Logistic Support Division.  The Unit deals with control and inspection of the Divisions units besides quality controlling the Logistics Support Division and its units.  Similarly, the Unit is responsible for providing technological and computer solutions to the departments of the Logistic Support Division.

 Human Resources

The Human Resources System develops human resources and provides quality service to the policeman, while placing emphasis on professionalism, shortening response times, and amongst other things, organizing seminars and professional advanced training programs.  This system places emphasis on the quality of human resources in the organization by means of grading personnel, recruiting, placing and advancing on a basis of professional considerations and equal opportunity. (מערך משאבי אנוש פועל לפיתוחו של המשאב האנושי ולמתן שרות איכותי לשוטרת תוך מתן דגש על מקצועיות, קיצור זמני תגובה באמצעות, בין השאר, עריכת ימי עיון והשתלמויות מקצועיות. ( מערך זה שם דגש על איכות כוח אדם, גיוס, שיבוץ וקידום על בסיס שיקולים ומתן שוויון הזדמנויות.

Recruitment and Discharge

The procedure of recruitment to the Israeli Police Force includes a compatibility test and medical, psychological and security profiling.  The procedure of being discharged from the Police service includes discharge at the request of the policeman, retirement or dismissal. 

Planning Human Resources

Planning human resources includes writing the management theory of human resources in the Israeli Police force and instructing the people the headquarters and frontline unit level who deal with human resources.  The preparation of up to date situation pictures and forecasts ahead, mechanization and equipping with computer literacy are also part of Human Resources planning functions.

Instruction, Training and Education

The acquisition of professional knowledge, besides the role of a policeman, and education during service are guaranteed to turn the Police into a learning organization, prepared in the best possible manner for the complex challenges it faces.  The training tracks towards becoming a policeman and an officer are meticulously structured, with advice from experts both from within and outside the Police Force in coordination with the various changing roles and requirements.

Observance of Discipline

The Israeli Police Force takes various measures to punish policemen involved in breaking the law and examines their degree of suitability to continue serving in the Police Force that takes their malfunction into account. 

Observance of the Policeman's Professionalism

Operational competence is an important component of a policeman's professionalism.  A high level of operational competence makes it possible for a policeman to fulfill his duties efficiently, at minimal risk to himself and those around him.  The training programs are based on drawing conclusions from events that have occurred and on mastering the use of new weapons.

Emphasis on Professional Ethics

As a professional and advanced organization, the Israeli Police Force nurtures the professional ethics of its people with a moral education, by presenting Israel's complex reality that is accompanied by conflict that often demands Police intervention.

In order to impress ethical and instructional values on the policeman at his work, explanatory material has been written based on actual events, and workshops are set up continuously to sharpen sensitivity to ethical dilemmas and to the sense of obligation that follows simply from just serving in the Police Force.  In 1997, the "Ethical Code" of the Israeli Police Force was formulated.  It set out the basic obligations of the policeman to the public.  The principle aim of the ethical code is to create a balance between the authority that is vested in the policemen, his obligation to fulfill his duties and the human rights of the citizen. 

Welfare and Conditions of Service

The Israeli Police Force supports the need to preserve and nurture the human resource – the policeman.  Concern for the individual and his welfare are behind a wide array of rewards and benefits.  Vacations for units, officers and policemen, service benefits (professional insurance, dental insurance, subsidized vacations for the families of servicemen and women, and more), support for retirees in the process of leaving the service, welfare services – assistance to policemen with problems and ליוויום/loans?, etc.  The individual services administration helps the families of fallen policemen, arranging the funerals of those who fell protecting the public safety while on duty in the Israeli Police Force. The Ceremonial Unit is in charge of  the appearance of the policemen as representatives of the Israeli Police Force.

Identification and Evaluation  

The behavioral sciences section of the Israeli Police Force is in charged with planning and developing screening, recruitment and compatibility tests and with assessing management potential among the officers.  Other functions include testing performance satisfaction of commanders and subordinates, executing surveys to evaluate workers and colleagues, advising commanders on human resources management and instructing the staff at the training bases in various fields of the behavioral sciences.  

Salary Planning

The Salaries department of the Israeli Police Force deals with matters of salaries and service conditions of policemen and pensioners and is a partner in determining the guidelines of police salaries.

Integration of Soldiers in the Police Force

In addition to the soldiers serving in the Border Police, soldiers on mandatory service are also posted to the Israeli Police Force in positions of internal security.  Their service conditions are identical to those of soldiers serving in the IDF and their enlistment in the Police Force is subject to their agreement. 

Medical Services

The Israeli Police Force is concerned with the medical treatment of the policemen and prisoners including inoculations and guidance in preventative medicine.  Similarly medical studies are performed in subjects relevant to the service in the Israeli Police Force. 

Religious Services

Israeli policemen are entitled to a variety of religious services:  Marriage ceremonies, circumcisions, funerals and memorials, Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrations for the children of policemen, affixing mezuzahs, lectures and special projects before Holy Days.

Documentation and Historical Research

The Israeli Police Force also attaches importance to documentation and researching police heritage and history.

Units Subordinate to the Inspector General and the Deputy Inspector General

Spokesman

Public opinion and the image of the Police in the eyes of the public on the one hand and the right of the public to knowledge on the other, lie at the basis of the activities of the Spokesman's Office of the Israeli Police force.  This section is responsible for maintaining a constant working connection with the various media, including foreign media, for the smooth flow of reliable and accurate information to all media in everything to do with the activities and policy of the Police.  The Spokesman Office's activities include media initiatives, arranging press conferences, briefings to correspondents and responses to inquiries and questions from the media with regard to the activities of Police units and their policemen.  In addition, the Spokesman's Office offers professional advice to the Inspector General, the commanders and police in the field of information and communication. 

Legal Counseling

The Legal Bureau of the Israeli Police force provides legal counseling to the Inspector General, the Police command, to the divisions of the Headquarters and Districts in matter requiring legal guidance in fundamental matters, in considering taking administrative steps against policemen, responses to petitions to the High Court of Justice in against the police in civil matters and in preparing various legal contracts (drafting tenders, etc.) 

Similarly, the Legal Bureau represents the Police in procedures towards legislation that are held in the Parliamentary Committees and government Ministries as well as in the Police Committees, and this, alongside the drafting of internal police commands and procedures. 

The Police Comptroller

The Police Controller is charged with the management of the gamut of financial activities of the Israeli Police Force and their execution.  The Comptroller supervises the Police budget in accordance with the dictates of the budget law and the guidelines of the General Comptroller, executes the payments of salaries of about 35,000 wage-earners, employed by the Police, and provides immediate financial services to the field units.  A department of surveillance and control operates in the Comptroller's Office and is subordinate to him.  Its purpose is to inspect the accounting units, to issue procedures and update them. 

Inspection

The National Inspection Unit of the Israeli Police Force arranges organizational and functional inspections in all the Police units.  The Unit inspects the following aspects:

Observance of the law, regular procedure, integrity, thrift, and efficiency, quality service to the public and to what measure the goals set are achieved.  The Unit transmits its findings and recommendations to the subjects of the inspection and their superiors, and follows up on the correction of the faults.

Security

The Security Department of the Israeli Police Force focuses on training commanders in the subject of danger evaluation and security investigation of the activities of policemen.  The Department runs a professional independent training system and runs training and instructional courses, workshops and seminars.  There are also inspections of the units, work meeting with commanders and support in the field, to advance subjects of appraising dangers and investigating accidents.  The Department supports the field units with engineering advice that includes surveys of operational plans and correction of faults.

Complaints from the Public

Complaints from the public to the Israeli Police Force are handled by an array of regional and district investigation officers.  A professional complaints unit exists at the National Headquarters and deals with control, guidance, inspection and control of the work of the Police system.

The public complaints organization clarifies the public's complaints against the behavior of the policemen.  Complains regarding a suspicion of criminal actions by Police personnel are investigated at the Police Investigation Department located in the Ministry of Justice.  The connection with public and government bodies (the Commission of Public complaints, the Office of the State Comptroller, the Unit for appeals from the public at the bureau of the President of the State of Israel, the Citizen Rights Association, etc.), is also run by the Unit for Complaints from the Public.  In addition, the Unit deals with implementing the freedom of information law:  receives requests for information, register them, receives opinions relating to the requests from professionals and responds to the public in accordance with the instructions of the law, as well as publishing an annual report on the subject. 

The Disciplinary Court

The Disciplinary Court deals with the trials of policemen accused of disciplinary transgressions.  The Court has full independence in everything connected to its judicial decisions and has the full backing of the Inspector General, to prevent intervention in and influence on the judicial procedure and the verdict.  In some of the matters that come before the Court, issues of principle in police work are involved.  As a direct result of the deliberations, the Disciplinary Court recommends changes and corrections of the work orders of the Police and its procedures.

The Court of Appeals

This Court serves as a Judiciary Appellate Court to the Disciplinary Court.  The appeal may be lodged either by the accused or by the police prosecutor.  The appeal may deal with the findings of the court decision or in the matter of the sentence.  The Appellate Court is authorized to cancel a verdict of the Disciplinary Court in part or in full, and reach an alternative decision instead.  Similarly, it has the authority to cancel the punishment, reduce it or, instead, reject the appeal.

Foreign Relations

The Foreign Relations Unit is responsible for handling the Israeli Police Force's relations with foreign organizations present in Israel and abroad.  The Unit deals with visits of representatives of the Israeli Police Force to Police Forces all over the world and correspondingly with visits, tours and advanced studies by visitors of the Israeli Police Force from abroad as well as agreements of cooperation between them.

Police Districts – Israel