The Israel Police announced that as part of Israel’s 70th anniversary celebrations, hundreds of thousands of closed files will be canceled from the police registry.

Police Commissioner Roni Alshich explained that “one of the principles of the police’s reform is a clear distinction between the normative citizen and the offender and the recognition that even the normative citizen is liable to sin and stumble. Therefore, the Israel Police is acting for the purpose of situational prevention – to assist normative citizens to refrain from committing offenses, and sometimes to assist those who committed an offense to return to the fold and conduct a normative life.”

The process will not be automatic and one wishing to have one’s case expunged from the record will require one to file an official request with police. On the occasion of the festivities, the police decided that it would be appropriate to invest during the concentration of effort and exceptional resources, regardless of the citizen’s appeal. At the end of the procedure, approximately 339,000 investigation files involving some 300,000 citizens of the State of Israel, residents of the region, foreigners and tourists will be removed from the registry, of which about 34,000 are minors. Implementation of the outline will begin in the coming weeks.

The police emphasize that in the framework of the outline, closed investigation files will not be canceled for serious violent offenses, serious assault offenses, security offenses, murder offenses and offenses under section 17 of the Criminal Register and Rehabilitation of Offenders Law. Cancellation of the files will be computerized by the police.

The process of canceling closed files will be carried out according to the following cumulative parameters:

1. The procedure will apply to a person who has two closed investigation files in his name.

2. Cancellation shall be affected if the following conditions are not met: (a) A person who is awaiting trial is entitled to open a file in his name, referring to a case in which a person is questioned on a suspicion of committing an offense and has not yet made a decision, or an indictment has been filed and the legal proceedings have not yet been completed. (b) In the case of the citizen, there is a determination by a court that the proceeding in his case has ended with a conviction or without a conviction, and has not yet passed the statutory erasure period.

The outline does not prevent any citizen from applying to the Israel Police to cancel closed investigation files that are not included in the outline.

The Minister of Public Security and Strategic Affairs, Gilad Erdan, referred to the initiative to erase prescriptions: “This is a real message to civilians investigated on suspicion of criminal activity that will remove the stigma of their past.” The Ministry of Public Security accompanied the initiative, Protecting the rights of civilians, even those investigated by the police, is paramount.”

“I see great importance in the initiative to delete records and welcomes the fact that hundreds of thousands of citizens will be given the opportunity to open a new page on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel,” said Minister Gilad Erdan.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)