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The Israel Police tort data report for 2023, published today (Monday) after repeated postponements, reveals that in 2023 the police paid more than 14 million shekels as part of tort claims and compensation demands filed against the organization.
For comparison, in 2022 the police paid compensations in the amount of about 18 million shekels, and in the year before that about 16 million shekels.
From the segmentation of lawsuits and claims filed against the police in 2023, there was a slight decrease with 628 cases, compared to 643 in 2022 and 549 in 2021.
cause and effect
The details of the report show that out of 14 million shekels, the Israel Police paid about 3.2 million shekels (which, as mentioned, come from public funds) for lawsuits and demands for compensation for assault and use of force by police officers.
About 2.9 million shekels were paid as compensation for the illegal use of firearms, and the rest for false arrests, searches, acquittals in investigation files and abuse of police power and more.
In 2022, the largest amount in tort claims against the police was paid for cases filed for the injury of sponge balls against citizens with NIS 4.4 million.
On the other hand, in 2021, the leading cause in compensation claims was the use of force with NIS 2.3 million, which the police paid in cases that were discussed and decided this year.
Attorney Finney Fischler, a member of the Police Committee of the Israel Bar Association and who fought for the publication of the report, stated that "any CEO of a public or private company who submitted such a tort report to his board of directors year after year would have flown home in a ballistic missile. Here we are dealing with public funds, so who cares?"
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"The amounts claimed as part of the tort claims filed against the police represent a significant economic risk," the police legal advisory office states.
"Many claims are filed without any underlying justifiable cause, or alternatively the amounts claimed are grossly unfounded and excessive. In the absence of appropriate examination and treatment, the economic risk could have been fully realized and significantly burdened the public purse.
"Because of this, the tort section, in cooperation with the police accounts, consultants District legal and other factors within the police and outside, invest a lot of effort in the handling of claims to reduce the scope of compensation or deny the provision of compensation in the appropriate cases, both within the management of civil proceedings in all its stages, and within the framework of settlement agreements between the walls of the court and outside.
All this, while taking responsibility and learning lessons on the one hand, and on the other - while providing adequate, proper and fair protection to the police officers and their activities in cases that justify it.
"To illustrate things, we note that in 2023 the police paid 14,077,458 shekels, while the scope of the amount of claims this year amounted to a total of 243,185,303 shekels. This conduct fulfills our responsibility to protect the public purse in general and the police budget in particular, along with our obligation to bear responsibility for the damage caused as a result from police activity".
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violence
Police violence
police officers
Israel Police
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