State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman published a comprehensive report finding that Israel Police carried out unlawful surveillance activities, including illegal wiretaps and improper use of advanced technological tools, while operating for years without sufficient legal authorization, clear procedures, or effective oversight.
The findings, publicized on Tuesday, point to what the comptroller described as “fundamental and systemic failures” across law-enforcement bodies that require immediate correction.
The report examines the police’s growing reliance on technological surveillance tools, including wiretaps, cyber tools, and the collection of communications data. According to the comptroller, police expanded their use of such tools dramatically between 2016 and 2021, even as the legal framework governing them lagged behind technological reality.
Among the most serious findings: nine technological tools were examined, and in multiple cases, police used them without proper legal approval, or in ways that were later found to exceed their legal authority. In at least three cases, tools were used without any authorization from the police’s own legal advisers, while two tools that had received internal approval were later deemed to have exceeded police powers.
The scope of irregularities extended deep into operational practice. The comptroller reviewed roughly 14,000 requests for surveillance-related orders, of which about 11,000 were implemented, and found widespread procedural flaws. In 35 out of 35 sensitive wiretap requests reviewed, police failed to seek the required approval from the State Attorney’s Office.
Some 37% of requests involving legally protected individuals were approved without authorization from the head of the Investigations and Intelligence Division, and nearly 89% of requests for computer-based surveillance relied on “exceptional” judicial orders rather than standard warrants.
Illegal data collection, no indication of malicious intent
The report also documented illegal data collection after tools were installed.
In approximately 40% of implemented surveillance targets, police collected information they knew they were prohibited from gathering.
Investigators identified 23 cases of unlawful collection of historical data and 14 cases in which prohibited surveillance outputs were actively used, including 10 instances of improper intelligence use and one case in which illegally obtained material led prosecutors to withdraw evidence from a criminal case.
Englman stressed that the report does not conclude that police acted with malicious intent, but found that systemic failures - outdated legislation, weak internal controls, and insufficient legal supervision - created conditions in which illegal practices became normalized. He singled out the Attorney-General’s Office and State Attorney’s Office for failing to demand full disclosure about the capabilities of surveillance tools or to initiate a comprehensive legal review of their use.
The report includes a detailed set of recommendations, calling for updated legislation, mandatory legal and technological opinions before any tool is approved, stricter judicial scrutiny of surveillance requests, and reinforced oversight mechanisms within both the police and the Justice Ministry. Englman warned that failure to act would lead either to unchecked erosion of democratic rights or to weakened law enforcement unable to confront organized crime.
THE FINDINGS build on concerns raised in previous comptroller reports over the past decade, which repeatedly warned that police surveillance capabilities were advancing faster than regulation and oversight - warnings that, the report suggests, were not adequately addressed.
Notably, the comptroller acknowledged that broader investigations into systemic failures surrounding October 7 – including intelligence-related and operational oversight issues - have been stalled due to ongoing court proceedings, limiting the ability of state watchdogs to conduct a comprehensive review at this stage.
While police and the Justice Ministry told the comptroller they have begun implementing reforms following earlier interim findings, Englman concluded that corrective action remains incomplete as of December 2025, and urged senior officials - including Justice Minister Yariv Levin (Likud) and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) - to ensure the recommendations are enforced without delay.
The Public Defender’s Office said the report exposes “a troubling and deeply concerning picture” in one of the most sensitive areas of law enforcement, warning that the prolonged use of technological surveillance tools has raised serious concerns of disproportionate harm to constitutional rights.
It added that the failures stemmed from three main areas: deficient oversight and quality control within police work processes; a lack of effective supervision by the police’s legal advisers and the Attorney-General’s Office over the tools in use; and the absence of clear statutory regulation governing certain surveillance technologies, which the police instead applied based on internal administrative interpretation.
The office highlighted what it described as especially alarming data, including findings that police used three different surveillance tools without any legal approval, introduced four additional tools based solely on internal police legal advice without informing the Attorney-General’s Office, and obtained approvals for wiretap activity from prosecutors without authorization from the Attorney-General.
According to the Public Defender’s Office, police surveillance activity during the three-year period reviewed by the comptroller resulted in the collection of more than 7.5 million data outputs through a single technological tool, while the total volume of data stored in police systems reached approximately 50 terabytes - most of which, the comptroller found, should be destroyed under the law.
The statement further noted that between 2019 and 2021, police sought to monitor some 9,500 targets, with prohibited information collected in roughly 40% of cases, and that significant documentation and approval failures were identified, including instances in which required prosecutorial authorization for sensitive wiretaps was missing.
The Public Defender’s Office said it has warned for years of the need for an independent external oversight body to supervise the acquisition, validation, and operation of surveillance technologies by law enforcement authorities, expressing hope that the comptroller’s findings would lead to a comprehensive, system-wide reform.
“This report is intended to strengthen state institutions and restore public trust,” Englman said, “not to target individuals - but the responsibility to act is immediate."