It is not only the police that lacks police officers: a report by the Knesset Research Center, prepared for a discussion to be held at noon in the Knesset National Security Committee, states that there is also a shortage of inspectors and police officers in municipal policing, which operates in local authorities and is supposed to deal with violent offenses that harm the quality of life.
The report shows a significant discrepancy between the standard of inspectors and police officers who are supposed to operate in local authorities by the Ministry of National Security, and the actual order of battle. The report also revealed that only seven of the 40 authorities that participated in the study have full standardization, meaning that the number of inspectors assisting and police officers in an active state matches what is required by the gravestone standard.
Kobi Shabtai. Shortage of police officers, photo: Gideon Markowitz
In August 2011, the Law to Streamline Municipal Enforcement and Supervision in Local Authorities was enacted as a pilot in 12 local authorities for two years. Over the years, the number of authorities included in the program has increased.
It should be noted that the municipal policing system consists of a dedicated police force and a designated municipal supervisory unit of inspectors who will assist the police in actions to prevent violence. The assisting inspectors are municipal inspectors who have undergone specialized training and at the end of which they have been given powers that enable them, in the event of an act of violence, to require a person to identify himself, search for weapons on him and detain him until the arrival of a police officer, using reasonable force.
Municipal policing fails to address the issues for which it exists
The main goals for establishing municipal policing are: creating a protected and high-quality living environment, strengthening personal and community security in the municipal space, strengthening deterrence and enforcement capabilities at the municipal level, reducing the level of violence, criminality and "antisocial" behavior, with a clear emphasis on quality of life offenses.
According to the law, the establishment of a municipal policing system in a local authority is not supposed to reduce the existing police effort in the police stations in which it operates. In addition, the police may not reduce the scope of the police forces and the existing scope of activity in the local authority, simply because of the establishment of municipal policing.
One of the main issues that arose from the responses of the local authorities to the study is the conflict of interest between the authority and the police with regard to policing activity, and in particular the focus of enforcement. The first difficulty concerns prioritizing the handling of the designated basket of offenses of municipal policing.
Inspectors hand out reports for not wearing a mask in the mall, during the coronavirus period, archive, photo: Marco
In this context, it was argued by many local authorities that while they would prefer to focus on enforcing and preventing incidents in the field of quality of life and public order that are reported to the municipal hotline, the police prefer to deal with criminal offenses reported to the 100 hotline, even though the role of policing is to prevent quality of life offenses, violence and antisocial behavior.
Authorities noted that when it came to dealing with offenses that are not included in the designated basket of municipal policing, municipal policing units dealt with the following offenses: domestic violence offenses, drug seizures, guarding the homes of threatened police officers, handling traffic accident incidents, illegal offenses (ISA), brothels, handling alimony orders and execution orders.
According to some authorities, the handling of these incidents, particularly incidents of domestic violence, takes a long period of time, creating a situation in which the municipal policing unit and municipal policing vehicles do not provide a response to quality of life incidents.
Ben Gvir. Report ahead of a National Security Committee hearing (archive), photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Some local authorities claim that "inspectors are not supposed to deal with such offenses." It also turns out that a shortage of manpower in police stations within the PA leads to the diversion of the municipal police force to reinforce the police stations, inter alia in order to strengthen and strengthen the regular police patrol units. The local authorities claim that this harms the relative advantage for which municipal policing was established – enforcing quality of life offenses – as well as its ability to be an initiating factor and not just a factor that responds to incidents received at the 100 hotline and are supposed to be handled by a patrol department.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us
