Israel
| Author | George Kurian |
| Pages | 503-508 |
Page 503
Official country name: State of Israel
Capital: Jerusalem (proclaimed as such by Israel in 1950 but not recognized by the international community)
Geographic description: Narrow strip of land, historically known as Palestine, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon
Population: 6,276,883 (est. 2005)
The Israeli National Police (INP) was established at the founding of the state in 1948. It was legally based on the British Mandate Police Ordinance of 1926 and resembled the Mandate police force organized by the British soon after they conquered Palestine in World War I. The 1926 Police Ordinance and the Criminal Procedure Ordinance of 1924 regulated the organization, powers, and duties of the Mandate Police. At the time of Israel's creation, approximately nine hundred Jews were serving in the Mandate Police (along with Arabs), and they formed the nucleus of the police force of independent Israel. Israel's first police chief was a former Mandate officer. Israel has two nontraditional police units within the INP: the Border Patrol (BP) and the Civil Guard.
The country also has an internal security agency, the Shin Bet, (also known as Shabak, the Hebrew acronym for General Security Service), the history of which can be traced to the Jewish underground, Haganah, which fought the British as a guerrilla force. The Shin Bet is the equivalent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Its operational responsibilities include surveillance of hostile groups, foreign agents, and Arab subversives and the security of state officials. After the Six-Day War in 1967, the Shin Bet was invested with new powers over the occupied or "administered" territories. These responsibilities have caused the institution much notoriety as brutal and callous and have earned it the rebuke of Amnesty International and other human rights organizations.
The INP is directly subordinate to the Ministry of Public Security (formerly the Ministry of Police), which also controls the Israel Prison Service. Although the ministry's functions are mostly managerial, there are some operational divisions, such as the Chief Scientist's Office and the Information Service and International Relations Division. The ministry also supports the National Council for Crime reduction (Metzila in Hebrew), founded in 1987. It works with municipalities, schools and other institutions to identify and reduce crime in high-risk communities and areas.
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The INP is responsible for internal security and law enforcement. With the outbreak of the intifada (an Arabic word that has come to symbolize Palestinian uprisings against Israeli occupation), its responsibilities have multiplied and now include counterterrorism, guarding of public installations, combating infiltration of terrorist groups, and dealing with suicide bomb attacks. The INP is headed by an official variously known as a commissioner or an inspector general with his headquarters in Jerusalem.
Israel is divided into five police districts, each under a district commander:
Tel Aviv
Jerusalem
Southern
Central
Northern
Each district is divided into subdistricts, of which there are thirteen, and each district has a headquarters organized in the same manner as the national headquarters. District commanders report to the police commissioner. At the lowest level are the police precincts and police stations. Subdistricts and precincts are responsible for all operational activities.
Except for the BP, the INP relies on a system of voluntary enrollment. Conscripts are used in the BP where reenlistment is high and about 40% elect to remain in the service. Personnel turnover is fairly large in the police force as a whole. Police work is traditionally regarded as unattractive although with improved salary scales, the number of applicants has grown. This has permitted the INP to raise its hiring qualifications. Another important change was the rule that permits conscripts for army duty to serve in the INP in lieu of the military. Fluency in Hebrew is not mandatory for service either in the army or in the INP. This allows new immigrants to join the INP soon after their arrival in Israel.
Police ranks are generally comparable to those in the armed forces. The INP inspector general (makafeach klali) holds a rank equivalent to that of major general. The other ten ranks are as follows:
Assistant Commander
Chief Superintendent
Superintendent
Chief Inspector
Inspector
Deputy Inspector
Sergeant Major
Sergeant
Corporal
Lance Corporal
The INP consists of six departments and several staff units, which report directly to the commissioner. The departments are:
Logistics, Planning, and Organization
Investigations
Operations and Patrol
Personnel
The Border Guard
The Civil Guard
This department consists of the Criminal Investigations Division (CID), the Intelligence Division, and National Investigation Units. The CID is the scientific arm, with regional subdivisions and modern laboratories at the INP headquarters, where evidence is analyzed through fingerprinting, drugs, explosives, ballistics, and so on. The Intelligence Division controls all intelligence and detective operations throughout the country. The computerized data are centrally located and quickly and easily retrieved. The division is responsible for investigating all drug-related crime. It interacts on an international level with foreign police forces, having police representatives stationed in several different countries, and cooperates extensively with Interpol in international investigations. The Investigations Department operates two national investigation units: one focusing on white-collar crimes; the other on serious crimes such as drug...
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