On January 1, 1999, Sapiens Israel general manager Uri Engelhard will receive the rank of commissioner , and join the police force in charge of the information technologies center. He will join commander Shai Vardi, former general manager of software company OST, of the Formula Group, who joined the police a year ago and today serves as head of the software applications development division. This division employs 150 programmers, many of whom were recruited in recent months from the private sector.
All this is part of an ambitious plan the Israel Police Force is implementing, which is expected to be completed within less than five years. By then, Israel Police will be fully computerized, from the Chief of Police to the last police officer on the beat. "In another three to five years, the police force will be computerized to the hilt," says brigadier general Herzl Yosov, head of the police national headquarters planning and organization division.
The plan was formulated two years ago. In a more than NIS 50 million investment spread over five years, Israel Police started on thirty-five computerization projects simultaneously. On completion, most police work will be computerized, all police stations will be connected to a wide data transmission network, and there will be a computer on every work desk. At the same time, patrol vehicles, some patrol policemen, investigation quarters, monitoring facilities, administrative, logistic and operational units will be computerized.
"In certain areas, we are the first or second police force worldwide to implement such projects," says Yosov, which explains the fierce competition by commercial companies over tenders being issued. Winning a project is likely to make it easier for them to win future tenders in larger and richer police forces worldwide.
This is in addition to the prestige accompanying the title "terrorist combat systems" as the police have dubbed some of the projects. This title enables the winning company to benefit from Israel's security reputation, and the police to benefit from the aid the US accorded Israel to combat terrorism. At this stage, it amounts to $20 million.
One example is the project to computerize 1,000 patrol cars of the national police traffic, which will be equipped with portable computers connected to the police central station and central information sources through a wireless data communications network. They will be able to identify people by means of photographs or identity cards and obtain archived information about them.
Policemen will study the latest information files, get information on the scene of the incident, will be able to plan the shortest access route. Patrol cars will be equipped with GPS satellite navigation tools, enabling them to monitor the location of each patrol car at all times, through a geographical information system and a fleet management system.
The project amounts to an estimated $10-15 million, out of which $5 million will go to finance purchase of portable computers, which will be financed out of the terrorism combating aid. The police plan to issue a tender in the first quarter of 1999, and deploy the operational system during the year 2001. Among others, a tender will be issued for the communications network. The police are not ruling out the possibility of using data transmissions based on the cellular networks currently operating in Israel, and in tests it is conducting, the police involved Cellcom and Pele-Phone too.
The central control and command system will be set up by Malam Systems, and will operate using Unicenter software. The database will operate using an Oracle DB server, which recently won a NIS 4 million tender. The heart of the project is an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system, a tender for which is currently being prepared. "The police's new core will be ERP," they say at national headquarters.
The police have recently set up a communications network which will reach every police station. It is based on a broad communications network deployed by Bynet, and local networks at police stations, set up by several Israeli companies. The project totals NIS 50 million, spread over three years.
The network will supply the infrastructure to computerize the seventy police stations in Israel, for an investment of NIS 35 million. On completion, all activities will be connected to a central database, which will enable computerization of task planning, complaint registration and form filling, station diary, investigations and operations. The system is expected to improve the stations' work management efficiency, and save on staff that today deals with typing and inputting forms for the central computer. The first trial started with Rehovot police. Another six stations are currently computerized, and the remaining stations will follow.
In fact, an Intranet system will be established which will, among other things, transmit data between stations and provide access to central databases. The system will serve as computerized management tools for police chiefs and will include 1,300 e-mail user addresses. The police talk of a comprehensive computerized office project, the deployment of which will be completed by mid 1999.
Under development is a system for automatic electronic enforcement, enabling the use of video cameras connected to a database. Another system, that the police prefers not to discuss, will connect voice systems to the central database. Existing Israeli technologies enable computerized monitoring of telephone conversations. It will be possible to retrieve them through a voice recognition system, and reconstruct additional details, such as where the call were made from, and where to, what the contents of the conversation were, and so forth. Scanning of thousands of lines in search of certain expressions raised in certain investigations can be a very powerful intelligence tool, but the police refuse to reveal details.
What about the Internet? The police is pondering this question. Several months ago, the police started an Internet project aimed at setting up a home site, similar to the one the Israel Air Force maintains. In the meantime, a decision was made to widen the scope and incorporate various information services for the public, but they have not yet been defined. In all events, the police are interested in utilizing the medium for their immediate requirements too, and enable the public to forward information to the police. Yosov says, "It will not be an informer operation. We are talking about receiving information from the public."
Published by Israel's Business Arena December 30, 1998