Bill to Place the Police Internal Investigations Unit Under the Justice Minister Advances to Second and Third Readings

The Knesset is voting tonight, Wednesday, in second and third readings on MK Moshe Saada’s (Likud) “Police Internal Investigations Unit” bill, which stipulates that the Department for Investigation of Police Officers should be separated from the State Attorney’s Office and turned into a unit within the Justice Ministry. Saada previously said of the proposal that the law’s purpose is “that there will no longer be immunity granted to senior police officials who are close to the prosecution.”

The move is being advanced contrary to the position of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who determined that the proposal “will lead to a political takeover of the Department for Investigation of Police Officers and will become a tool in the hands of the government to steer investigations against police officers and direct the conduct of the police according to its needs.” State Attorney Amit Isman also opposed the law, and several months ago wrote to MK Simcha Rothman, chairman of the joint committee of the Constitution Committee and the National Security Committee, which discussed the proposal, that the law “increases the concern about political interference in the police’s actions.” He added: “The benefit of separating the Department for Investigation of Police Officers (DIPO) from the State Attorney’s Office is limited, while the potential harm to the unit’s independence, to the ability of its head to withstand pressure from the political echelon, to the unit’s professionalism and its operation according to uniform professional standards with the other law enforcement bodies, and to the concern of harm to the rule of law in general, is extremely significant.”

In the letter, Isman noted that DIPO’s independence and professionalism are important guarantees for the police’s independence and professionalism, and warned that “harm to DIPO’s ability to fulfill its role as an independent and professional law enforcement body will ultimately increase the concern about political interference in the police’s operations.” “DIPO is a complex unit to manage,” the State Attorney wrote, “as decision-makers in the unit are often faced with complex professional and legal decisions. In light of this, it is important that DIPO not become an isolated unit operating disconnected from the existing law enforcement system, in a way that creates different rules for DIPO’s target population, and that may increase the concern about political influence on the decisions of law enforcement officials. There is no doubt that, like in any body or unit, DIPO has had failures in the past, probably has failures today and will have failures in the future as well. DIPO has undergone far-reaching changes in recent years and faces many challenges. There is a need to strengthen DIPO’s standing and give it the tools it needs to carry out its work in a professional and optimal manner and strengthen public trust in it.”

“In my view,” he concluded, “the current bill, which cancels DIPO’s organizational attachment as an organic unit in the prosecution, and establishes another unit that will not be subordinate to the attorney general, to her interpretation of the law and to her professional guidelines, will cause DIPO to cease functioning as a professional, efficient and effective law enforcement body. In light of the above, I believe there is no justification for advancing the proposed model in the current bill, a model for which, to my understanding, no equivalent has been found in the world, and, on the other hand, there is concern that the bill will harm DIPO, a body that is unquestionably of paramount importance in the law enforcement system, harm equality before the law and the ability to effectively conduct complex and sensitive investigations.”