Police chief nominee to take lie detector at request of vetting committee

Maj. Gen. Moshe “Chico” Edri will undergo a polygraph test before the body in charge of vetting nominees for senior positions gives its decision on his appointment as the next chief of the Israel Police.

Edri, the current director general of the Public Security Ministry and a former police commander of the districts of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, was nominated earlier this month by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan as the next Israel Police commissioner, beating out Jerusalem police chief Yoram Halevi, who was considered the front-runner for the position, and current Tel Aviv police chief David Bitan.

The Advisory Committee on Appointments of senior postings, headed by retired Judge Eliezer Goldberg, said Wednesday that Edri would have to undergo a lie-detector due to the lofty and sensitive nature of the commissioner position, the fact that there were complaints against him, and the fact that other contenders for the job had already undergone the test.

“Such a test is required both according to the principle of equality between candidates, when two other candidates underwent it, and to prevent gossip about the nominee, if he is selected, as if he had something to hide,” the committee said in a statement.

“Such a cloud [of suspicions] shouldn’t surround the police commissioner,” it said, adding that it would submit its opinion about Edri’s appointment after the polygraph.

Several hours after the committee made the demand, Erdan’s office said in a statement that Edri agreed to take the test “as soon as possible.”

The committee has held several discussions on Edri’s appointment and interviewed Erdan, outgoing police chief Roni Alsheich, and Edri himself.

After it called on the public to submit information that could help in the vetting of Edri’s candidacy, the committee said it had received many responses, mostly supportive. However, some members of the public complained about “inappropriate behavior,” it said, without elaborating.

There have been reports lately of complaints against Edri, with reservations about him also said to have been voiced by Alsheich.

A report last week by the Kan public broadcaster said one of the complaints involved alleged behavior that has in the past caused other police officers to be dismissed. Other complaints said Edri had allegedly been in conflict of interest due to ties to business people that he didn’t report.

The committee has heard two of the people who complained about Edri and has received data from the police about discipline within the organization, the Goldberg Committee said.

The Public Security Ministry dismissed the complaints as “slander and gossip,” claiming they were lies and could warrant a defamation lawsuit.

LGBT rights groups had slammed Edri’s nomination in light of a deadly stabbing at the Jerusalem pride parade that took place when the nominee was the city’s top officer.

Edri received a reprimand over the 2015 attack, in which ultra-Orthodox extremist Yishai Schlissel stabbed to death 16-year-old Shira Banki and wounded five others.

Despite intelligence warnings Schlissel and others were planning acts of violence against the marchers, Jerusalem police under Edri’s command did not take any measures to monitor the stabber, who had been previously imprisoned for a similar but not-fatal attack at the 2005 gay pride parade.

Edri’s nomination drew widespread praise from politicians in Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “fitting appointment” and called the nominee a “good and experienced officer.”

Coalition chairman David Amsalem, a Likud MK, who has sharply criticized police amid a series of corruption investigations into the prime minister, also welcomed Edri’s nomination and wished him “much success.”

Alsheich is to end his term in December after four years in office. Erdan, who has clashed with the outgoing commissioner, declined to extend his tenure by an additional year.