Following the police's unpreparedness for the riots in May, during which Border Police companies were forced to enter the mixed cities, Commissioner Sahabtai decided to invest in recruiting police officers who would be an available force to deal with serious crime in Israeli territory.
Senior Officer: "The riots illustrated to us how important it is for the police to have forces that are skilled in combat"Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai has decided to recruit hundreds of new border police officers to deal with riots and serious crime as part of the lessons learned from Operation "The Guardian of the Walls" - Walla learned this evening (Tuesday).
Upon taking office, Shabtai presented a plan to reinforce the police. The commissioner demanded five billion shekels and the recruitment of five thousand new police officers. In practice, only 1,200 new positions have been authorized for the police at this stage within the state budget, which is expected to be approved next month.
The Commissioner has decided to invest these positions in the two biggest problems in Israel's internal security. This is one of the main lessons from Operation Wall Guard and the riots in the mixed cities, where the police were not ready with enough forces on the ground and had to bring in border companies from the West Bank and recruit reservists, which took several days to carry out. Time was wasted in this process, thereby undermining the citizens' sense of personal security.
As part of the reorganization of the Border Police, nine standards of Chiefs of Staff with the rank of Deputy Chief of Staff were added with the aim of turning the Border Police into a corps that would operate with large forces with operational roles of National Guard in times of emergency. This is a significant addition to the police force that is skilled in dealing with riots, terrorism and serious crime, after in recent years the Border Police not only did not intensify and grow, but rather standards were cut from it.
"The security situation and riots during Operation Wall Guard illustrate to us how important it is for the police to have forces skilled in combat," a senior police officer he told Walla.Along with this addition, the Commissioner decided to add the other positions, between 900-800 police officers to police stations in Arab sector in police stations located in mixed cities and in units dealing with crime in Arab society. This, following his statements that eradicating Arab crime is a top priority.