Israeli police

The Israeli police is a civilian force in the State of Israel. As most other police forces in the world, their duties include crime fighting, traffic control and maintaining public safety.

The current police commissioner is Rav-Nitzav Moshe Karadi, who succeeded Rav-Nitzav Shlomo Aaronishki.

In case of emergency, a civilian (in Israel) can reach the police by dialing 100 in any phone (free of charge).

Contents

Roles

  • Security
    • Counter terror.
    • Keep public's security.
    • Maintain public order.
    • Securing public events, rallies and holidays.
    • Handling suspecious objects and explosives (EOD).
    • Securing schools.
    • Riots control \ crowd control.
  • Law enforcement
  • Crime fighting
  • Traffic control
  • Police and community
    • Operating the civilian guard (MASHAZ in Hebrew).
    • Handling civilian complaints.
    • Handling youth violence and crime.
    • Educating the community and participate in educational campaigns.

Organization

The Israeli Police is a proffesional force, composed mainly from officers on payrole.

Diagram - Organization tree (http://www.police.gov.il/english/AboutUs/Structure/02_chart.asp)


The Israeli police is also responsible for operating MAGAV - the Frontier Guard. MAGAV is the combat arm of the police and its mainly serves in unquiet areas - the borders, the West Bank, and the rural countryside. MAGAV have both proffesional officers on pay-role and both conscripts, serving 3 mandatory years in MAGAV instead in the Israeli Defence Forces.

The YAMAM is the police elite counter terror unit.

Weapons and gear

Israeli police officers are obliged to carry personal firearm while in duty. This is because the Israeli police duties include also counter terror and each police officer must be able to supply emergency reaction in case of terrorist attack. Another reason is that there are threats of kidnapping officers by Palestinian terrorist groups such as Hamas or Fatah's Tanzim.

Each policeman is armed with a pistol (handgun) which he usually also carries home and off-duty. Also, each patrol car must have at least one long-arm (i.e rifle). Police volunteers are usually armed with M1 Carbine, which they return to the police's armory after they finish their duty (they do not take the rifle home). Volunteers who have gun license may use their own personal handgun as personal defence weapon for their police duty, under the condition that the guns type and ammunition is authorized by the police.

Heavy armaments such as assult rifle, sniper rifles and non-lethal weapon are assigned according to activity and not on personal basis.

MAGAV policemen, however, carry an M16 assult rifle as a standard personal weapon and can carry it home while off-duty (like regular infantry on the Israeli Defence Forces).

Issued weaponry

Standard isssued rifles (non-combat):

  • M1 Carbine (also standart issued weapon of the MASHAZ - Civilian Guard)
  • M1A1 Carbine (modernized M1 Carbine with folding stock)
  • M1 Carbine bullpup
  • Magal (micro-Galil)

Standard issued assult rifle (combat):

Sniper rifles

Handguns

Non lethal weapons:

  • police battons
  • tear gas grenades
  • flash grenades
  • rubber-coated bullets
  • pepper spray

Honors and Awards

  • July 6, 2004: Recieved an award from the Anti-Defamation League for its counter terror efforts and for passing seminars of counter-terror measures to FBI and local USA police. [1] (http://www.adl.org/learn/news/Amichai_Shai.asp),[2] (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1089090725477&p=1078027574097)

External links

  • Israeli Police official website
    • Hebrew (http://www.police.gov.il)
    • English (http://www.police.gov.il/english/default.asp)
    • Arabic (http://www.police.gov.il/arabic/index.html)
    • Russian (http://www.police.gov.il/russian/default.asp)


This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia article. Browse Wikipedia for more information.