Jerusalem – Government Approves Expanded Stop-and-Frisk Law In Wake Of Terror

    0

    Israeli police search a Palestinian man at the Damascus Gate of the old city of Jerusalem, 18 October 2015. EPAJerusalem – A bill expanding the meaning of probable cause for searching a suspect’s person for weapons was approved by the cabinet Sunday.

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    “Following recent terrorist attacks, there is an urgent need to give the police authority to conduct body searches in order to better deal with knife terrorism,” Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who proposed the amendment, explained. “This is another step I am promoting in a series of decisions to strengthen the police and its authority to increase personal security in the streets.

    The existing law allows police officers to search a person’s body, clothing and things he or she is carrying if the officer has a reasonable suspicion that the person is carrying a weapon, which essentially means that the police officer had to see something he or she thought could be a weapon in order to conduct the search.

    If the bill passes three votes in the Knesset, police officers will be able to search anyone in a place prone to violence if they think have reason to think he or she may use a weapon– for example, if someone is brawling or if someone spoke threateningly – without a visual cue that the person may be carrying a weapon, and allow evidence found in such a search to be admissible in court.

    Places prone to violence include “clubs, puts and discotheques and other places meant for recreation and in which alcoholic drinks are sold to be drunk in that place, places with arcade games, billiards, card games, games of dice and others, sports fields, stadiums and any other place with sports competitions, and places a regional police commander declared temporarily as a place where such searches can be made…if he has a reasonable suspicion that peace could be disturbed by an act of violence in that place.”

    If a place is temporarily declared as a zone in which such searches can be conducted, police must hang signs stating that they have that right, and the police officers have the authority to search people connected to activities in that zone, not random passers-by.

    The bill is identical to a government proposal from 2010 that did not make it through the Knesset, except in that it adds suspicion of terrorism and not just of criminal activity to the reasons a police officer could search someone or declare a zone in which searches are permitted.

    The bill only applies to searches for weapons and not drugs or anything else, in order to lessen violations of privacy.
     Israeli police searching a Palestinian man at the Damascus Gate of the old city of Jerusalem, 18 October 2015. Israel has increased its security in Jerusalem, 300 soldiers  of the elite forces have been deployed to the city in order to reinforce the Israeli Police in their mission to safe-guard public transportation and main routes of the city.  EPA/ATEF SAFADI


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group