(Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
By Stuart Winer - April 17, 2018
Originally appeared here in the Times of Israel
The Israel Police will wipe clean hundreds of thousands of police records in a goodwill gesture to mark the country’s 70th Independence Day.
Under the initiative, some 339,000 closed files relating to 300,000 Israeli citizens, regional citizens, foreigners, and tourists, will be deleted, among them cases involving 34,000 minors, police said in a statement.
“Even regular citizens commit offenses and break the law, but that doesn’t mean we should label them as criminals,” Commissioner Roni Alsheich told a press conference Tuesday at police headquarters in Jerusalem.
“It is in the interest of society to not label them as criminals as much as possible and to enable them to return to the pool of regular citizens.”
The clean sweep, titled “A New Chance,” will only be applied to closed cases involving misdemeanors committed five years previously or criminal offenses committed seven years previously, and that did not lead to an indictment. Alsheich said the plan is part of a reform aimed at building public faith in the force. Read More