PID head: Police 'know all the tricks' to foil inquiries

By JPOST.COM STAFF
"Police officers under investigation come well prepared for their inquiry, know all the tricks and maintain a conspiracy of silence between them," Police Investigative Division (PID) head Herzl Shviro said Tuesday at a Knesset Interior Committee hearing. During the hearing, held in the wake of a report by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) which accused the PID of seldom investigating police officers, Shviro referred to the case of five policemen involved in the bomb-planting scandal against two figures in the Nahariya underworld, saying the entire episode was riddled with flaws. "Police officers covered each other and didn't testify about the offenses involving their colleagues," he told the committee. Committee chairman Ophir Paz-Pines blasted the PID's conduct, saying most of complaints submitted against police officers were not followed up and were rejected outright. He predicted that the public would soon stop trusting the PID.