The new search law, introduced by Justice Minister Gideon Saar, was approved today (Tuesday) by the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee ahead of the second and third readings.
The law is intended to expand the powers of police search as part of the fight against crime in general and the fight against organized crime in Arab society in particular.
This is a temporary instruction for 18 months.
The number one problem in dealing with crime in Arab society is the very low volume of deciphering serious crimes.
About 80% of murders in the Arab sector are not solved.
The differences in interpretation between the Arab sector and society as a whole in Israel are dramatic.
Police reports indicate that it takes too long for police officers to come to court to apply for a search warrant, during which time, for example, security cameras are removed from homes that documented the incident.
Yigal Ezra, head of the Crime Prevention Division in the Sif Division, one of the leaders of Operation Safe Track to eradicate crime in the Arab sector, said in a conversation with reporters today:
We as the police will know how to put filters.
This is a search only when it is a serious crime to prevent the destruction of evidence.
With the help of the new law we will be able to actually reduce the time in the field until the search warrant is issued.
I emphasize again, the search law will be used by us in the fight against crime and on the other hand will also strengthen the police and the police on the ground and will lead to a reduction in crime. "
Police raid on suspects' homes, as part of Operation "Safe Track", Photo: Police Spokeswoman
The law currently stipulates four grounds on which a police officer is authorized to conduct a search of a place without a court order.
The reasons are characterized by the fact that in their existence, the need to conduct the search is urgent, and applying to the court for a search warrant will frustrate its purpose.
The law proposes to add two additional grounds concerning search authority for the purpose of seizing evidence in connection with a serious criminal offense, due to fear of harm or disappearance, and a power to search when there is a suspicion of a suspect in a serious crime offense.
The minister stormed after the law was approved: "We are at war.
The police and law enforcement agencies need to be given additional tools to increase the rate of decipherments in crime in Arab society.
The right to life is also among human rights.
I inform you: I will bring more laws so that we can win the fight against crime in the Arab sector.
"I would like to thank the chairman of the committee, MK Gilad Karib, for leading the discussion of the law in the committee and for approving it."
Meanwhile, the head of the Operations Coordination Division in the Intelligence Division and one of the leaders of Operation Safe Track, Sen. Leon Hirsch, referred today to the police activity in the operation: "We have already reached indictments against 230 targets defined by the Israel Police as major perpetrators of crime on the Arab street. Alongside the operation, we have already worked with dozens of businesses that serve as financial services providers and seized hundreds of checks, luxury vehicles, property and bank accounts worth tens of millions of shekels."
It should also be emphasized that in the run-up to the elections in the local authorities in the Arab sector, the police have begun to map the candidates in each and every authority in order to make sure that they are not emissaries of criminal organizations.
"Once we know about one like this both he and the public who is supposed to vote for him will know," police said.
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