Police officers - see you have been abandoned

Major police bodies in the world have chosen to protect the lives of police officers with an advanced Israeli solution against trampling, but in Israel they still believe in the outdated and ineffective spikes

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25/07/2022

Monday, July 25, 2022, 11:33 am Updated: 12:04 pm

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The Israeli development of a compact barrier, light but not for local use (photo: Mapram)

In the last two months alone, there have been seven cases of stampedes at police checkpoints, in the last of which Major Barak of Shulam was killed and police volunteer Amichai Carmeli lost his life in front of him. At the beginning of May, police officer Albert Chaim (41) was also seriously injured when he was run over by a car thief At the checkpoint in the Shoham area.

These cases join another long line of incidents that luckily did not end in injury, but in the test of the result, they failed to stop the suspect vehicle.

In fact, one of the most challenging tasks for security forces around the world, including in Israel, is the ability to protect police officers from being hit by vehicles breaking through roadblocks, as well as the ability to channel and block vehicles that are fleeing from the scene of an incident.

The speed of the vehicles, along with their weight, make the task very complex.

Proved to be ineffective, but still in use (Photo: Reuven Castro)

As of today, the main means used by the Israel Police to stop vehicles is a barbed wire barrier.

This solution, far from providing an effective solution, and the problems involved in it are clear: a vehicle driving up to it and puncturing its tires, usually does not bring it to a stop, but only to a slowdown that allows the thief to continue driving it, which also poses a risk to the police officers and citizens who are nearby due to the limited ability to control the vehicle.

Furthermore, if it is a chase, there is a chance that the pursuing vehicles will also run over the spikes and their tires themselves will be punctured.

Against the background of this problem, recently in a conversation with Walla, the former head of the traffic division in the police, retired Superintendent Yaron Bari, stated that: "The police must draw conclusions and learn the lessons and probably change the shape of the checkpoint in order to better protect the officers."

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They do not stop the vehicle and in the case of continued rampage also endanger those around them (Photo: Reuven Castro)

The criticism raised by Barry does not only stem from the recent trampling cases.

About a year ago, Rosh Ha'Ein police officers identified a stolen vehicle on Route 444 near Rosh Ha'Ein.

They deployed a barricade of spikes on the road, but the suspect continued to drive wildly, climbing over the spikes and continuing to drive with the car's wheels punctured.

In another case that happened several years ago, the court sharply criticized the police's use of spikes that pose a risk to human life: as part of a hearing on an indictment filed against a driver who transported illegal residents.

He noticed a makeshift roadblock set up by the police and one of the officers signaled him with a flashlight to stop.

He drove over the spikes at high speed while veering to the side of the road, which almost led to a rollover.

The inefficiency involved in the use of a barbed wire barrier is well known to the Israel Police, who already about a decade ago came up with an idea to develop an innovative operational system to stop suspicious vehicles: police officers will place a kind of carpet in the vehicle's escape route, designed to stick to its front wheels and "lock" them.

In this way it will be possible to completely stop the suspect vehicle, at a relatively short distance and while causing as little damage as possible to its passengers and the surrounding area.

As is known, the idea did not mature into realization.

High stopping power, even when it is a heavy vehicle (photo: Mafram)

About two years later, in 2013, the police issued a tender for the purchase of spikes to stop a vehicle, within which, among other things, and absurdly, it stated that: "The barrier will operate efficiently. Emptying the air from the vehicle's tires in the shortest possible time and in any case that does not endanger the passenger of the vehicle and the operators of the barrier." {Section 3.8.3}

Meanwhile, while the Israel Police continues to use the spike solution, quite a few foreign police agencies are using much more effective solutions, including a modular barrier developed back in 2002 by the Mefram company - which develops and manufactures solutions for the barrier market. The company's flagship product, of which tens of thousands of units have been sold in recent years, is a mobile barrier with a relatively low weight of only 24 kg per barrier component.

Despite the low weight, the fact that it is compact, modular, quick to deploy and can be stored in any car, it is capable of stopping even a truck speeding towards it.

Can be folded and stored for portability (photo: Mfram)

The principle of operation of the barrier is to transfer the momentum of the speeding truck to the ground, which leads to its braking, within a few meters.

The special structure makes it possible to stop a vehicle by diverting all horizontal momentum up and down. The barrier is made of a steel alloy, which, unlike other metals, absorbs the energy and stops the vehicle. In addition, unlike a spiked barrier, the passage of vehicles over it leads to the puncture of the wheels and the danger of the vehicles overturning , the aforementioned barrier does not cause air loss but rather stops the vehicle in any situation.

The barrier was installed at many points in Tokyo during the last Olympics and also used by many police forces at checkpoints and events with many participants. Its disadvantages are that, unlike the simple, cheap and reusable spikes, Mefram's barrier requires replacement Depending on the type of damage or at least parts of it, as well as the high cost of each unit which is tens of thousands of shekels, depending on the requested size.

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