![HaMate HaArtzy 2 Jerusalem](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/HaMate_HaArtzy_2_Jerusalem.jpg)
The Israel Police ( he, משטרת ישראל, ''Mišteret Yisra'el''; ar, شرطة إسرائيل, ''Shurtat Isrāʼīl'') is the civilian police force of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. As with most other
police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...
forces in the world, its duties include crime fighting,
traffic control
Traffic management is a key branch within logistics. It concerns the planning control and purchasing of transport services needed to physically move vehicles (for example aircraft, road vehicles, rolling stock and watercraft) and freight.
Traffi ...
, maintaining
public safety
Public security or public safety is the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety and security of the public from significant danger, injury, or property damage. It is often conducted by a state government to ensur ...
, and
counter-terrorism
Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or ...
. It is under the jurisdiction of the
Minister of Public Security. The
National Headquarters of the Israel Police
The National Headquarters of the Israel Police ( he, בניין המטה הארצי של משטרת ישראל, ''Binian HaMateh HeArtzi shel Mishteret Yisrael''; short: ''HaMateh HeArtzi'', "National Headquarters") is the headquarters of the Israe ...
is located at
Kiryat HaMemshala
Kiryat HaMemshala ( he, קריית הממשלה, ''lit.'' Government complex), also known as Kiryat Ben-Gurion, (''lit.'' Ben-Gurion complex) is the government precinct of the State of Israel. It is located in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jer ...
in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
.
The Israel Police operates throughout Israel, the
Area C of the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
and the
Golan Heights
The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...
, in all places in which Israel has civilian control. It is the sole civilian law enforcement agency in Israel: there are no municipal or regional police forces, though some municipalities operate municipal enforcement units that deal with low-level offenses and provide additional security and as such have the power to issue fines, but do not have police authority.
In an emergency, the police can be reached by dialing 100 from any telephone in Israel.
History
![Israeli-Police-Facebook--Misdar-001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Israeli-Police-Facebook--Misdar-001.jpg)
The Israel Police was established in 1948. It is responsible for public security, maintaining public order, securing public events and rallies, dismantling suspicious objects and explosives (
EOD), riot and crowd control, law enforcement, crime fighting, detective work, covert operations against drug networks, investigating suspects, road traffic control, operating the
Civil Guard, handling civilian complaints, handling youth violence, educational campaigns.
The Israel Police is a professional force, with some 35,000 persons on the payroll. There are also 70,000 Civil Guard volunteers who carry out part-time work in helping to police their own communities.
The police are divided into the following main divisional groups:
Regional districts
The Israel Police is divided into six regional district commands:
*
Central District
*
Southern District
*
Northern District
*
Judea & Samaria District
*
Tel Aviv District
The Tel Aviv District ( he, מָחוֹז תֵּל אָבִיב; ar, منطقة تل أبيب) is the smallest and most densely populated of the six administrative districts of Israel with a population of 1.35 million residents. It is 98.9% Jewi ...
*
Jerusalem District
The Jerusalem District ( he, מחוז ירושלים; ar, منطقة القدس) is one of the six administrative districts of Israel. The district capital is Jerusalem. The Jerusalem District has a land area of 652 km2. The population of ...
*
Coastal District Police
Operational units
* The Security and Community Policing Branch is responsible for ordinary law enforcement tasks such as conducting patrols in public and responding to emergency calls.
* The
Israel Border Police
The Israel Border Police ( he, מִשְׁמַר הַגְּבוּל, Mišmar Ha-Gvul) is the gendarmerie and border security branch of the Israel National Police. It is also commonly known by its Hebrew abbreviation Magav (), meaning border g ...
("''MAGAV''") is the combat arm of the police and mainly serves in specific areas – the borders, Jerusalem, and the West Bank. It is responsible for law enforcement in the rural countryside and for putting down civil unrest, particularly rioting. It participates in counter-terrorism operations. The Border Police has both professional officers on payroll and conscripts who serve in the Border Police as their mandatory three-year national service. It also has volunteer personnel.
* The
Yamam
The Yamam ( he, ימ"מ, an acronym for ''Centralized Special Unit'' , ''Yeḥida Merkazit Meyuḥedet''), also called in Hebrew and Israel's National Counter Terror Unit (I.N.C.T.U.) in English, is Israel's national counter-terrorism unit, ...
(acronym for Special Police Unit) is the police's counter-terrorism and hostage rescue unit. It is known as one of the most experienced and specialized units of its kind in the world. The unit has taken part in hundreds of operations in and outside the borders of Israel.
* The
Yasam is a
riot police
Riot police are police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests or riots.
Riot police may be regular police who act in the role of riot police in particular situations or they may be separate units organize ...
and crowd control unit, and also participates in counter-terror operations. The unit, originally started as Riot Police, was called upon to assist with counter-terror operations, as well as dismantling settlements in accordance with the Israeli court decisions. The Yasam has sub-units of Rapid Response Motorcycle Units.
* The
Yamas
The Yamas ( sa, यम, translit=Yama), and their complement, the Niyamas, represent a series of "right living" or ethical rules within Yoga philosophy. It means "reining in" or "control". These are restraints for proper conduct as given in the ...
is a counter-terrorist commando unit. It's operators are trained in conducting operations undercover, disguised as civilians. Although officially part of the Border Police, it is directly subordinate to
Shin Bet
The Israel Security Agency (ISA; he, שֵׁירוּת הַבִּיטָּחוֹן הַכְּלָלִי; ''Sherut ha-Bitaẖon haKlali''; "the General Security Service"; ar, جهاز الأمن العام), better known by the acronym Shabak ( he, ...
, the Israeli internal security service.
* The
National Traffic Police is the police's traffic enforcement arm. It is divided into five regional districts and a national patrol unit.
* The
Civil Guard is the police's force of part-time volunteer officers, who comprise the majority of Israeli police officers. It is officially a division of the Security and Community Policing Branch. Civil Guard volunteers have limited police powers. They carry out patrols in public, are trained to provide the initial response to any security situation they encounter until regular police forces arrive, and partake in traffic control. The Civil Guard also has search and rescue teams.
*
Lahav 433
Lahav 433 () is an Israeli crime-fighting umbrella organization within the Israel Police, created on January 1, 2008. Known as the "Israeli FBI", the unit is the merger of five law enforcement offices into one. It was established as an initiative ...
is the police's unit for investigations of serious crimes and corruption.
* The Police SIGINT Unit is responsible for
signals intelligence (SIGINT) activities.
* The Dog Handling Unit is responsible for operating
police dogs.
* The Police Aerial Unit operates police helicopters.
* The Police Marine Unit is responsible for operating boats and has police divers.
* The
Israel Police Bomb Disposal Unit
The Israel Police Bomb Disposal Unit ( he, מערך החבלה של משטרת ישראל) is a section of the Israel National Police tasked with render-safe operations, recovery, disposal of explosive devices and processing crime scenes after b ...
is the bomb squad of the police. It deals with operations and investigations which involve suspicious objects, explosive devices or military ordnance.
* The Seif Unit is responsible for tackling crime in the
Israeli-Arab population.
* The Division of Identification and Forensic Science is responsible for forensic science in investigations. It has laboratories dealing with latent fingerprint analysis, arson investigation,
mass spectrometry and explosive analysis, digital evidence, DNA and other areas of biology, firearms, and
questioned document examination.
* The Internal Investigations Department is responsible for investigating wrongdoing by police personnel. It is officially independent from the police and under the jurisdiction of the Justice Ministry.
Weapons and equipment
![Police car of Israel 06](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Police_car_of_Israel_06.JPG)
Each patrol officer is armed with a
pistol (handgun) which he or she usually also carries while off duty. Also, each patrol car must have at least one long-arm (i.e. rifle). Police volunteers are usually armed with an
M1 Carbine
The M1 carbine (formally the United States Carbine, Caliber .30, M1) is a lightweight semi-automatic carbine that was a standard firearm for the U.S. military during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The M1 carbine was produced ...
, which they return to the armory after they finish their duty (they do not take the rifle home, but may sign one out for escorting field trips, etc.). Volunteers who have a
gun license
A firearms license (also known as a gun license; or licence in British English) is a license or permit issued by a government authority (typically by the police) of a jurisdiction, that allows the licensee to buy, own, possess, or carry a ...
may use their own personal handgun as personal defense weapon while on duty, under the condition that the gun and ammunition type is authorized by the police (9 mm). Common pistols owned and carried by volunteers include
Glock
Glock is a brand of polymer-Receiver (firearms), framed, Recoil operation#Short recoil operation, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H., Glock Ges.m.b.H. The ...
and CZ-75 designs.
Specialized armaments such as automatic rifles, bolt-action rifles and non-lethal weapons are assigned according to activity and not on personal basis. Border Guard personnel, however, carry an
M16 or
M4 rifle as a standard personal weapon and can carry it home while off duty (like regular infantry in the
Israel Defense Forces).
Ranks
Awards and recognition
* July 6, 2004: Received an award from the
Anti-Defamation League for its counter terror efforts and for passing seminars of counter-terror measures to
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
and local USA police.,
* In October 2010 the elite unit
YAMAM
The Yamam ( he, ימ"מ, an acronym for ''Centralized Special Unit'' , ''Yeḥida Merkazit Meyuḥedet''), also called in Hebrew and Israel's National Counter Terror Unit (I.N.C.T.U.) in English, is Israel's national counter-terrorism unit, ...
of the Israeli Police won the "
Urban Shield" SWAT competition held by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office setting a new record in the competition.
* In October 2011 the elite unit YAMAM of the Israeli Police won the "Urban Shield" SWAT competition held by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office again.
General Commissioners
Women police
In 2015, the editorial of ''
Haaretz'' claimed "Women constitute at least 30 percent of the police force" and criticized there were no women who have reached the rank of major general.
Controversies
A 2014 analysis by
Yesh Din
Yesh Din: Volunteers for Human Rights ( he, יש דין) is an Israeli organization working in Israel and in the West Bank. The organization was founded in 2005 by a group of women who previously worked with the organization Machsom Watch. The p ...
questioned the professionalism of the police force of the
Judea & Samaria District (also known as the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
) as only 7.4% of reported attacks by Israeli citizens on Palestinian persons and property had led to indictments.
In 2015, several senior officers resigned due to criminal investigations or accusations of sexual harassment of employees. Five police at the rank of major general resigned in the preceding 18 months amid scandal. The February 2015 announcement that another senior Israel Police officer was under investigation for sexual harassment was criticized by women's and rape victim advocacy groups, who held protests at police headquarters in a number of cities.
An ongoing Israeli programme of inviting U.S. police groups to study Israeli policework in sponsored visits has been the object of controversy for several years.
[Alex Kane and Sam Levin]
'SCOOP: Internal ADL Memo Recommended Ending Police Delegations to Israel Amid Backlash,'
Jewish Currents 17 March 2022
See also
*
Lahav 433
Lahav 433 () is an Israeli crime-fighting umbrella organization within the Israel Police, created on January 1, 2008. Known as the "Israeli FBI", the unit is the merger of five law enforcement offices into one. It was established as an initiative ...
*
Palestinian Civil Police Force
The Palestinian Civil Police Force ( ar, الشرطة المدنية الفلسطينية, ''al-Shurtah al-Madaniyah al-Filistiniyah'') is the Civil Police organization tasked with traditional law enforcement duties in the autonomous territory g ...
*
Administration of Border Crossings, Population and Immigration
*
Law enforcement by country
In many countries, particularly those with a federal system of government, there may be several law enforcement agencies, police or police-like organizations, each serving different levels of government and enforcing different subsets of the appli ...
References
External links
English websiteDiagram – organizational structure
{{Authority control
National police forces