Police Ordinance Amendment (No. 45) Bill

What does the bill do?

The law further sets a new mechanism for appointing the head of the department through a dedicated search committee, and creates the position of a commissioner for coordination on investigating police officers, who will be authorized to decide disputes between the department and other investigative and prosecutorial bodies and to order, in appropriate cases, the transfer of cases between the bodies. In addition, the law sets a separation between the department and the Attorney General's legal advisory system, so that the department's prosecutors will be authorized by the head of the department, and the criminal powers currently held by the Attorney General or the State Attorney's Office in cases handled by the department will be transferred to the head of the department. The law further sets that appeals against the department's decisions to close a case will be submitted to the coordination commissioner. Alongside this, the department will be subject to the general guidelines of the Attorney General and of the State Attorney, except when the guidelines grant authority to a body external to the department. The law also includes amendments concerning the full civilianization of the department, and as a result also provisions regarding the access of department employees to the police information systems. Finally, the law sets provisions on commencement and preparation for its implementation, as well as a reporting obligation for the Minister of Justice and the Minister of National Security to the Knesset on the handling of complaints and offenses attributed to police officers and on the results of their handling.