Balancing Police Action: Between Terror and Maintaining Public Order

A Summary of an Era and Challenges for the Coming Years

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  • Cover Type: Softcover
  • Number Of Pages: 63 Pages
  • Price: 30 NIS

A summary of the first meeting of IDI's Police and Society Forum in 2004, which explored the nature of the work of the Israel police in the preceding years and discussed the challenges that will face them in the coming years. The focus of this session was the impact of terrorism on police activity and on the ability of the police to fight crime and maintain public order.

At the beginning of the new century, Israel faced a bloody wave of terrorist attacks triggered by its conflict with the Palestinians. These attacks forced the Israel Police to redefine its priorities. Carrying out the new task required financial resources, personnel, and a new deployment. The police invested a great deal of effort in order to provide citizens with maximum security, a mission that was far from simple. Needless to say, the new set of priorities did not allow the police to advance in their efforts to bolster their numbers and fight crime.

On July 12, 2004, IDI convened the first meeting of the Police and Society Forum, which was presided over by Israel Police Inspector General Shlomo Aharonishky. Participants summarized the previous period, considered the nature of police work in the past few years, and discussed the challenges facing the Israel Police in the coming years.

This session discussed how terrorism impacts police activity and the ability of the police to deal with the challenges of crime in the 21st century while maintaining a reasonable level of public order. Topics included the problems that the police face and the challenges awaiting them in the coming years. In addition, the session looked back on Inspector General Aharonishky’s term in office, as he completed a tumultuous tenure strongly marked by terrorism, and introduced the new Inspector General, Moshe Karadi.