Police chief urges ‘caution’ in passing law expanding minister’s control over force

Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai speaks at a Knesset committee meeting debating a new law expanding the authority of the national security minister — set to be Otzma Yehudit head Itamar Ben Gvir — over the police force.

Shabtai warns, “I am sure that the proposed law will have a dramatic impact on the character of the Israel Police. Dramatic changes like these need to be done with caution and through an in-depth and professional process.”

“The police is not the army, it is exposed to sensitive information about Israel’s citizens,” he says.

The law, which passed the first reading on the Knesset floor yesterday, deals with the police commissioner’s subordination to Ben Gvir’s post as national security minister.

However, Shabtai argues that there is no need for such a law.

“The internal security minister has great powers today. I have served under two ministers so far and I never encountered a situation that would indicate a problem. There was no case in which a minister asked for his policies to be carried out and we did not do so,” Shabtai says.

“It’s hard for me to understand the claims that the minister is a rubber stamp,” he says.