Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh
Photo: Avi Mualem
Israel Police to launch dedicated unit to fight cyber crime
Police commissioner says emphasis will be put not just on enforcement, but also on prevention of online crime, with police monitoring social media for possible offenses.
Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh announced this week the establishment of a new dedicated unit to fight cyber crime both by catching offenders and by taking preventative actions.
"In the coming weeks, after a lot of work, we'll be launching the Maor unit to fight any violence and criminal activity online," Alsheikh said.
The unit will be numbered 105 to correspond with the hotline number it will operate. "You dial 105, it's like the 100 emergency call center but for online matters relating to children and teens. It'll also be accessible online," he explained.
Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh (Photo: Avi Mualem)
The new unit, the police chief said, was established in cooperation with the Education, Welfare, Justice and other ministries "based on conclusions drawn from many other countries to have done this. Crimes of all types are moving online: sex crimes, property crime, etc., and it has far-reaching consequences. This is an arena where almost anything can be done. The police will be wherever teens are—Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat."
He went on to explain the unit's operations. "When someone is about to commit an offense online, in places where it's obvious people go to commit an offense, a window will pop up from the police saying 'Excuse me, sir, your next click constitutes a criminal offense. Please consider your actions,'" Alsheikh said.
"Today, the police is everywhere online, wherever it is allowed to be by law. For children, there are risk areas online that we identify, or alternatively we're where people call us for help," he went on to say.
Alsheikh explained that "a professional team will decide how to handle the matter. There won't necessarily be police involvement."
The commissioner said the police was investing a lot of effort in preventing crime both online and offline.
"Let us take, for example, the offense of pedophilia that, without a doubt, anyone who has grandchildren or children will be quavering. If I talked here about the number of people who download such criminal material, everyone here would be shocked—a five figure number," he elaborated.
Alsheikh spoke about the important of crime prevention. "We need to create a situation in which crime prevention gives us the best answer, and then what's left (that cannot be prevented), we'll deal with using enforcement," he said.
He explained the new police unit will operate "between enforcement and prevention, to create a situation in which we can reduce the number of online criminals. Not just have someone complain to the police that someone, heaven forbid, attacked his child. Unfortunately, most of the time we don't know (something was happening)m and if we do, sometimes it's too late. So we have to be there (first)."
