Last update - 00:00 11/02/2008
Police: Crime dropped in 2007 as less terror put cops back on beat
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
"This has been an incredible year for Israel's police," Police Commissioner David Cohen declared on Sunday.
He was not referring to the police force's troublesome handling of the Peki'in riots; nor to the embarrassing footage of him driving 180 kilometers per hour on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway.
Nor did he refer to Judge Vardi Zeiler's report that claimed it is possible police officers maliciously concealed from Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon the fact that they had tapped his phone while they were investigating him for sexual harassment.
Cohen on Sunday night said all those were the "glass half empty." To prove that the other half is full, he presented a long list of statistics showing a substantial drop in felonies last year. "Despite our daily hardships and difficulties, we had lots of accomplishments in 2007," Cohen said.
During the past year, homicide rates dropped 21 percent, with 118 cases reported. Robberies went down by 20 percent, with the number standing at 3,292 incidents. Police managed to substantially stem gas station robberies by 30 percent, compared with 2006. One of its biggest failures, however, was its handling of violent robberies of elderly people, a crime that rose by 7 percent. "Robberies of elderly people are a very grave phenomenon," Cohen said. "I gave specific orders to treat assaults on elderly people with severity."
"There's been an escalation in the procuring of weapons by organized crime," the commissioner added. "Numerous shootings in the North in particular bear witness to that." During 2007, there were 229 incidents in which criminals used explosive devices and grenades, a rise of 28 percent. In response, the central and northern districts of the force have undertaken an operation involving hundreds of officers, with the goal of preventing the use of firearms by organized criminals.
The commissioner claims six principal criminal syndicates exist in Israel, with another 18 to 20 smaller ones in operation as well. Cracking down and disrupting the activity of all of them is not realistic, he said. "When a small operation goes down, another one emerges," he said.
Stabbings also rose in 2007, with 1,078 cases reported, a 27 percent hike, and assault of police officers went up by 6 percent.
For the first time since 2002, there was a decrease in the number of burglaries, which were down to 734 cases a week from 810. One of the key factors behind this change, Cohen said, was that forces had been diverted back from dealing with thwarting terror attacks to their original role of policing. "In my opinion, what really affects citizens' sense of security are events like breaking into apartments and car theft," Cohen said. ""One man's violation of another's domain is a serious crime that affects his sense of safety. Police need to deal less with terror and semi-military issues and focus on crime."
In 2008, the police will have to invest greater efforts in rehabilitating their tarnished image. To accomplish that goal, an additional 1,000 policemen have been recruited, to serve in 20 stations around the country.
In terms of felonies per 100,000 citizens, the volume of crimes committed in Israel has remained stable over the past 40 years. In 1965, there were 5,862 crimes committed per 100,000 people; in 2000, that number stood at 7,316 crimes - a record. That number has ebbed and now stands at 6,083, although when Israel was established in 1948 there were only 1,324 crimes for 100,000 people.
Police fear terror attacks may increase in 2008, though they do not anticipate a return to the same intensity they had in 2002-2004. Cohen suggested that "2008 will be a year of change in the war against drugs, something we neglected in the past few years."