Police Procedures Cannot be Hidden from the Public
ACRI appealed to the Legal Advisor of the Israel Police on November 1, 2026, demanding that the current versions of police procedures be published and made accessible to the public.
Under the Freedom of Information Law, a public authority is required to publish administrative guidelines that it uses and that are important or relevant to the public (except in exceptional cases specified by law). Police procedures set out how police officers may act in encounters with civilians, what measures they are permitted to use, and the limits on their powers. Publishing these procedures is essential so that the public is aware of its rights and can monitor police conduct. Nevertheless, our review found that important procedures concerning civil rights are not available on the police website, and much of what is available and accessible to the public is outdated.
For example, the current procedure governing the use of water cannons to disperse demonstrations is not available to the public; only an outdated version, which was repealed in January 2024, appears on the police website. This means that protesters and would-be protesters have no access to the current rules governing the use of a measure that could cause them physical injury and infringe on their right to protest. Our review also found other procedures that have not been published, or that can be located only through external search engines and not through the search engine on the police website.
ACRI petitioned the Court as early as 2018 about requiring the police to publish its procedures online. Following that petition, the police undertook to publish the procedures on the website and to inform the public about what they had determined not to publish pursuant to the exceptions set out in the law; this process was given the force of a court judgment.
In the current appeal, ACRI Attorney Eden Gilad demanded that the police immediately publish all current procedures that must be made available for public review; ensure that they are accessible through the search engine on the police website; and update the list of procedures that have not been approved for publication and ensure that information about them also appears in the search engine. This is an ongoing obligation that the police must fulfill, and not only in response to appeals or legal proceedings.
ACRI's appeal, November 1, 2026 (Heb)
