Israel Police’s Tech Build-Up Shifts Into High Gear
The new C4I Division of the Israel Police endeavors to implement the technology revolution throughout the massive organization in charge of law enforcement in Israel. In his first interview, the head of the new division, Deputy Commissioner Shai Cooperman, describes the applications his division developed, the challenges it faces and its activity in the field of independent satellite communication
Ami Rojkes Dombe
| 04/01/2019
Deputy Commissioner Shai Cooperman (Photo: Israel Police Spokesperson's Unit)
As far as the technological aspect is concerned, the Israel Police is substantially different from the other security agencies of the State of Israel, as the output of its operations invariably comes under the scrutiny of the courts. The IDF, Mossad, and even the ISA are not subject to that kind of legal obligation. Even a comparison of legal activity in military courts opposite the activity in civilian courts will show that the criteria for reviewing the evidence are different. In civilian courts, the evidence goes through a series of stringent examinations by defense counsels who look for flaws in the evidence collection process in order to get their clients acquitted.
The techno-legal sensitivity sets forth special needs that necessitate a substantial C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers & Intelligence) division. Indeed, the new C4I Division of the Israel Police, under the command of Deputy Commissioner Shai Cooperman, is a substantial organ, with about 30,000 servers, 1,300 technology specialists and dozens of applications developed and maintained in-house. The Division occupies offices in several buildings in Jerusalem, and is responsible for the organization's technological force build-up. The Division's units are engaged in such activities as application development, infrastructure management and development of specialized police weapon systems, devices, and resources.
As the organ in charge of technological force build-up, the C4I Division cooperates with the SigInt Department, the Investigation Division and other departments and organs across the force. The Israel Police adopted a model similar to that of the IDF, with a division in charge of technological force build-up and regional and professional units that actually employ the force. Some of the other departments maintain their own local development sections for the highly specific resources they require, but the C4I Division must sanction every development. The C4I Division is responsible for technological force build-up for the Border Police as well.
"At the Police server farm we implement numerous technologies, among them Citrix and VMware, including NSX," explains Cooperman. "There are seven different working environments at the farm, for every police activity. The Police also manages the national radio communication network (VHF), which serves all of the national organizations in the event of a national disaster, through some 200 masts installed throughout the country."
In-House Development
Cooperman explains that the application development concept of the Israel Police relies on two primary channels. Purchasing an off-the-shelf product is preferable, but if that proves impossible, the Division will develop the product in-house. "It is difficult to find in the market specialized software products that you may purchase off-the-shelf for the Police. Every police organization in the world operates in accordance with the specific legislation of the country and develops software products and resources designed to be compatible with such legislation," he elaborates. "Whenever an off-the-shelf product is available, as in the ERP world, we will use it as the basis and develop dedicated envelopes in-house."
Additionally, the Israel Police maintains a cooperative alliance with Ben-Gurion University in various areas of research in order to remain technologically innovative. The Police requests studies in various fields, and BGU provides the researchers. Cooperman told us he also communicates with startup companies with regard to the development of weapon systems.
One of the applications the Israel Police developed serves as a data platform for the police officer in the patrol car. "All of the information the patrolman may need is available at the touch of a button," explains Cooperman. "The Israel Police has access to the databases of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Transport & Road Safety and other ministries, so that it may be able to submit inquiries. The data goes to the server farm of the Israel Police every night. We had tried working with API but that did not provide a solution. You cannot check one record at a time. We must support thousands of police officers at any given moment, each one with his or her specific inquiries, so we must have the databases in our own possession."
Another development involves a police WhatsApp-like application known as Misronet. Misronet is a Citrix-based prompt messaging app the Israel Police developed for the police officers. Using this app, the information is disseminated and kept only within the Police network. Cooperman explains that the Police developed some 30 proprietary applications that manage bilateral databases. Some of these apps are available from the private app store of the Israel Police. "We have a dedicated unit that develops cellular apps," Cooperman reveals.
One other app development helps the Police locate people who opened distress calls opposite the Police Call Center. The Police developed this application, titled "Me'ater" (= spotter), as a lesson from an incident that occurred a few years ago. In that incident, a woman who had been involved in a car accident somewhere along the Arad-Be’er-Sheva road, called the 100 Call Center but could not explain where she was located. Her baby, only a few months old, was in the car. "That incident taught us that the Police needed an app that does not depend on a cellular app installed in the reporting civilian's cellular phone. Our app sends a text message (SMS) to the calling civilian. That civilian opens the message and authorizes us to locate him/her based on the GPS element in his/her cellular device. This is a life-saving project," says Cooperman.
Algorithms to Support Investigations
Artificial intelligence is a new field of activity in which the Israel Police is interested. Algorithms capable of searching through structured and unstructured data are a required application. Other options, such as identification of vehicles, persons, and objects in still images or video streams for investigative purposes; voice identification of persons calling the 100 Call Center; and voice-based distress identification are all future apps currently under consideration.
"Algorithms can identify data patterns that a human operator cannot find," explains Cooperman. "You want answers to questions you did not even ask. Imagine an investigation that involves massive amounts of information – documents, video streams, voice recordings, and so forth. You need the ability to spot connections within the data. The algorithm will help the investigating officers identify patterns that would lead them to the truth."
Another capability involves a review of police personnel management, including spotting of suitable staffing options, personnel behavior patterns, or commanding officers' evaluations. "Identifying biases in police officer evaluations is a task where algorithms can be of assistance. If you identify a biased evaluation pattern where all of the officers evaluated are subordinated to the same commanding officer, you will be able to improve the personnel control mechanism of the entire organization," says Cooperman.
"One of the challenges we face in the context of artificial intelligence is dealing with algorithm bias. Eventually, a person sits down and writes an algorithm and, without intending to, he/she will include in it his/her own biases. If we have self-learning algorithms tomorrow, how can we be certain that the algorithm's decision is unbiased? How can we prevent such biases in investigations aided by algorithms? We must find answers to these questions. One approach is to start with fields of activity where, even if a bias should occur, the damage will be minimal. A part of the process is considering which professional specialists are required for the police organ that develops artificial intelligence applications."
Cellular, Satellite & Encryption
The force build-up process of the Israel Police includes thinking about the future. The establishment of independent satellite communication and cellular communication infrastructures and acquiring the ability to deal with civilian encryption are some of the processes currently on the agenda of the Head of the C4I Division. Deputy Commissioner Cooperman told us that the Israel Police is currently in the process of acquiring independent satellite communication capabilities that would enable the organization to cope with natural disasters, wars or any other nation-wide event where the national communication networks might collapse. "With satellite communication you deploy an antenna, log on to the satellite and you have communication. You do not depend on any other element," says Cooperman.
Another challenge for the Police involves civilian applications that feature encryption, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, Skype, Signal, or any other app that currently features end-to-end encryption or will feature such encryption in the future. In these cases, the Police is unable to intercept calls or data, and depends on the user's goodwill or on a court order. "Encryption of devices civilians use where the Police has no way of viewing the data is a problem," explains Cooperman, "But it is a problem facing the Knesset. Only the Knesset can compel equipment manufacturers or social media companies to provide the Police with access to their servers or other equipment items. The probability of this taking place in Israel is very low as such a decision will contradict our Basic Laws.
"Consequently, in every specific case we will require a court order or the consent of the person under investigation. We can also ask the social media for information regarding an investigation. Another aspect involves the international nature of the information. The server farms of social media and international corporations are decentralized – dispersed in numerous countries. So if you conduct an investigation – to whom should you issue the warrant? To which country? It is impractical. The global nature of the data is a challenge for the Israeli legislator, too."
Yet another initiative by the Israel Police involves the replacement of the existing VHF radio network by a cellular network – a process similar to the one IDF had initiated. The Israel Police wants to set up its own cellular communication network that would rely, in part, on the infrastructures of other vendors (virtual operators) as well as on its own masts, the masts that currently support the VHF radio network. "Relying on the masts of the Police will enable us to set up a survivable cellular network. We have some 200 masts installed throughout the country, and we intend to install cellular communication cells on them," says Cooperman. "We will convert the masts of the 'Nitzan' infrastructure to support cellular communication. The cost involved is relatively low, as the sites already exist. This is a five-year project and some of it involves the sorting of allotted frequencies vis-à-vis the Ministry of Communications, so as to keep frequencies available for commercial LTE networks."
The "Business Units" of the Israel Police
Another unique aspect of police work is the need to keep data for extended periods. "We save the data of police activities forever," explains Cooperman. According to him, Israeli criminal law sets forth obsolescence (limitation) periods for different cases, but in reality, the data must be kept without a time limit in order to enable the national law enforcement organs to initiate retrospective historic research studies if they so wish. "The Israel Police keeps petabytes of data, all readily accessible for searching. In the case of unstructured data, we keep them in metadata format so that searching through data of this category will be possible in the future. The data is kept in our server farm, including periodic backups to a secondary site (DR = Disaster Recovery)."
Police sources noted that they have not yet established an active-active infrastructure between the organization's server farms, but this is in planning. Another activity that is critical to the Police is video monitoring. "For the Police, video (monitoring), both ground-based and airborne, is a critical activity," explains Cooperman. "The Gay Pride Parades are an example of an activity we video-monitor fully. We observe and monitor the entire activity of those parades."
The video monitoring world led the Israel Police to introduce new helicopters, drones, and ground-based resources that enable more effective visual enforcement. The frequent use of video monitoring corresponds with the efforts of the Police in the field of artificial intelligence, which aim to enable the organization to mine and corroborate information from video monitoring systems.The Israel Police C4I Division is also responsible for establishing a supportive computer infrastructure for economic/financial measurement of the various units of the Police. One of the applications Israel Police developed supports event management with regard to the logistic, operational and economic aspects. "Imagine you are managing an event attended by 4,000 police officers. That is not a simple undertaking. How do you plan such an event? What are the budget-related implications? The logistic implications? If you do not manage it properly, you will fail," says Cooperman.
"The system makes it possible to measure every operation with regard to the economic aspect, among other things. This capability has been available to the Israel Police for the past eighteen months. The demand for it had existed for many years, but we did not consolidate a supporting corporate culture yet. Efficient resource management and remaining within the budget limitations were not objectives for our commanders. The change took place as the district commanders demanded independence in the management of their resources. We established for them supporting data systems that incorporate the operational, economic/financial and logistic aspects and everything is eventually measured subject to the PAFS (Preventive & Administrative Focusing Strategies) system (Hebrew designation EMUN), which specifies the objectives for every commander in the Israel Police. The goal is to convert every police station into an independent Business Unit (BU) that would run itself economically/financially according to its objectives," concludes Cooperman.
Without a doubt, the decision by Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh to establish the C4I Division within the Israel Police will "put everything in order" with regard to the division between the build-up of the technological force and its actual employment, using a model that is similar to the one IDF and other security agencies employ. Unified thinking with regard to the build-up of the technological force not only saves money for the public, but also improves the operational performance of the Israel Police, which deals with modern criminal and terrorist organizations that possess substantial funds, technological know-how and access to state-of-the-art civilian products.
The new C4I Division of the Israel Police endeavors to implement the technology revolution throughout the massive organization in charge of law enforcement in Israel. In his first interview, the head of the new division, Deputy Commissioner Shai Cooperman, describes the applications his division developed, the challenges it faces and its activity in the field of independent satellite communication
Deputy Commissioner Shai Cooperman (Photo: Israel Police Spokesperson's Unit)
As far as the technological aspect is concerned, the Israel Police is substantially different from the other security agencies of the State of Israel, as the output of its operations invariably comes under the scrutiny of the courts. The IDF, Mossad, and even the ISA are not subject to that kind of legal obligation. Even a comparison of legal activity in military courts opposite the activity in civilian courts will show that the criteria for reviewing the evidence are different. In civilian courts, the evidence goes through a series of stringent examinations by defense counsels who look for flaws in the evidence collection process in order to get their clients acquitted.
The techno-legal sensitivity sets forth special needs that necessitate a substantial C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers & Intelligence) division. Indeed, the new C4I Division of the Israel Police, under the command of Deputy Commissioner Shai Cooperman, is a substantial organ, with about 30,000 servers, 1,300 technology specialists and dozens of applications developed and maintained in-house. The Division occupies offices in several buildings in Jerusalem, and is responsible for the organization's technological force build-up. The Division's units are engaged in such activities as application development, infrastructure management and development of specialized police weapon systems, devices, and resources.
As the organ in charge of technological force build-up, the C4I Division cooperates with the SigInt Department, the Investigation Division and other departments and organs across the force. The Israel Police adopted a model similar to that of the IDF, with a division in charge of technological force build-up and regional and professional units that actually employ the force. Some of the other departments maintain their own local development sections for the highly specific resources they require, but the C4I Division must sanction every development. The C4I Division is responsible for technological force build-up for the Border Police as well.
"At the Police server farm we implement numerous technologies, among them Citrix and VMware, including NSX," explains Cooperman. "There are seven different working environments at the farm, for every police activity. The Police also manages the national radio communication network (VHF), which serves all of the national organizations in the event of a national disaster, through some 200 masts installed throughout the country."
In-House Development
Cooperman explains that the application development concept of the Israel Police relies on two primary channels. Purchasing an off-the-shelf product is preferable, but if that proves impossible, the Division will develop the product in-house. "It is difficult to find in the market specialized software products that you may purchase off-the-shelf for the Police. Every police organization in the world operates in accordance with the specific legislation of the country and develops software products and resources designed to be compatible with such legislation," he elaborates. "Whenever an off-the-shelf product is available, as in the ERP world, we will use it as the basis and develop dedicated envelopes in-house."
Additionally, the Israel Police maintains a cooperative alliance with Ben-Gurion University in various areas of research in order to remain technologically innovative. The Police requests studies in various fields, and BGU provides the researchers. Cooperman told us he also communicates with startup companies with regard to the development of weapon systems.
One of the applications the Israel Police developed serves as a data platform for the police officer in the patrol car. "All of the information the patrolman may need is available at the touch of a button," explains Cooperman. "The Israel Police has access to the databases of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Transport & Road Safety and other ministries, so that it may be able to submit inquiries. The data goes to the server farm of the Israel Police every night. We had tried working with API but that did not provide a solution. You cannot check one record at a time. We must support thousands of police officers at any given moment, each one with his or her specific inquiries, so we must have the databases in our own possession."
Another development involves a police WhatsApp-like application known as Misronet. Misronet is a Citrix-based prompt messaging app the Israel Police developed for the police officers. Using this app, the information is disseminated and kept only within the Police network. Cooperman explains that the Police developed some 30 proprietary applications that manage bilateral databases. Some of these apps are available from the private app store of the Israel Police. "We have a dedicated unit that develops cellular apps," Cooperman reveals.
One other app development helps the Police locate people who opened distress calls opposite the Police Call Center. The Police developed this application, titled "Me'ater" (= spotter), as a lesson from an incident that occurred a few years ago. In that incident, a woman who had been involved in a car accident somewhere along the Arad-Be’er-Sheva road, called the 100 Call Center but could not explain where she was located. Her baby, only a few months old, was in the car. "That incident taught us that the Police needed an app that does not depend on a cellular app installed in the reporting civilian's cellular phone. Our app sends a text message (SMS) to the calling civilian. That civilian opens the message and authorizes us to locate him/her based on the GPS element in his/her cellular device. This is a life-saving project," says Cooperman.
Algorithms to Support Investigations
Artificial intelligence is a new field of activity in which the Israel Police is interested. Algorithms capable of searching through structured and unstructured data are a required application. Other options, such as identification of vehicles, persons, and objects in still images or video streams for investigative purposes; voice identification of persons calling the 100 Call Center; and voice-based distress identification are all future apps currently under consideration.
"Algorithms can identify data patterns that a human operator cannot find," explains Cooperman. "You want answers to questions you did not even ask. Imagine an investigation that involves massive amounts of information – documents, video streams, voice recordings, and so forth. You need the ability to spot connections within the data. The algorithm will help the investigating officers identify patterns that would lead them to the truth."
Another capability involves a review of police personnel management, including spotting of suitable staffing options, personnel behavior patterns, or commanding officers' evaluations. "Identifying biases in police officer evaluations is a task where algorithms can be of assistance. If you identify a biased evaluation pattern where all of the officers evaluated are subordinated to the same commanding officer, you will be able to improve the personnel control mechanism of the entire organization," says Cooperman.
"One of the challenges we face in the context of artificial intelligence is dealing with algorithm bias. Eventually, a person sits down and writes an algorithm and, without intending to, he/she will include in it his/her own biases. If we have self-learning algorithms tomorrow, how can we be certain that the algorithm's decision is unbiased? How can we prevent such biases in investigations aided by algorithms? We must find answers to these questions. One approach is to start with fields of activity where, even if a bias should occur, the damage will be minimal. A part of the process is considering which professional specialists are required for the police organ that develops artificial intelligence applications."
Cellular, Satellite & Encryption
The force build-up process of the Israel Police includes thinking about the future. The establishment of independent satellite communication and cellular communication infrastructures and acquiring the ability to deal with civilian encryption are some of the processes currently on the agenda of the Head of the C4I Division. Deputy Commissioner Cooperman told us that the Israel Police is currently in the process of acquiring independent satellite communication capabilities that would enable the organization to cope with natural disasters, wars or any other nation-wide event where the national communication networks might collapse. "With satellite communication you deploy an antenna, log on to the satellite and you have communication. You do not depend on any other element," says Cooperman.
Another challenge for the Police involves civilian applications that feature encryption, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, Skype, Signal, or any other app that currently features end-to-end encryption or will feature such encryption in the future. In these cases, the Police is unable to intercept calls or data, and depends on the user's goodwill or on a court order. "Encryption of devices civilians use where the Police has no way of viewing the data is a problem," explains Cooperman, "But it is a problem facing the Knesset. Only the Knesset can compel equipment manufacturers or social media companies to provide the Police with access to their servers or other equipment items. The probability of this taking place in Israel is very low as such a decision will contradict our Basic Laws.
"Consequently, in every specific case we will require a court order or the consent of the person under investigation. We can also ask the social media for information regarding an investigation. Another aspect involves the international nature of the information. The server farms of social media and international corporations are decentralized – dispersed in numerous countries. So if you conduct an investigation – to whom should you issue the warrant? To which country? It is impractical. The global nature of the data is a challenge for the Israeli legislator, too."
Yet another initiative by the Israel Police involves the replacement of the existing VHF radio network by a cellular network – a process similar to the one IDF had initiated. The Israel Police wants to set up its own cellular communication network that would rely, in part, on the infrastructures of other vendors (virtual operators) as well as on its own masts, the masts that currently support the VHF radio network. "Relying on the masts of the Police will enable us to set up a survivable cellular network. We have some 200 masts installed throughout the country, and we intend to install cellular communication cells on them," says Cooperman. "We will convert the masts of the 'Nitzan' infrastructure to support cellular communication. The cost involved is relatively low, as the sites already exist. This is a five-year project and some of it involves the sorting of allotted frequencies vis-à-vis the Ministry of Communications, so as to keep frequencies available for commercial LTE networks."
The "Business Units" of the Israel Police
Another unique aspect of police work is the need to keep data for extended periods. "We save the data of police activities forever," explains Cooperman. According to him, Israeli criminal law sets forth obsolescence (limitation) periods for different cases, but in reality, the data must be kept without a time limit in order to enable the national law enforcement organs to initiate retrospective historic research studies if they so wish. "The Israel Police keeps petabytes of data, all readily accessible for searching. In the case of unstructured data, we keep them in metadata format so that searching through data of this category will be possible in the future. The data is kept in our server farm, including periodic backups to a secondary site (DR = Disaster Recovery)."
Police sources noted that they have not yet established an active-active infrastructure between the organization's server farms, but this is in planning. Another activity that is critical to the Police is video monitoring. "For the Police, video (monitoring), both ground-based and airborne, is a critical activity," explains Cooperman. "The Gay Pride Parades are an example of an activity we video-monitor fully. We observe and monitor the entire activity of those parades."
The video monitoring world led the Israel Police to introduce new helicopters, drones, and ground-based resources that enable more effective visual enforcement. The frequent use of video monitoring corresponds with the efforts of the Police in the field of artificial intelligence, which aim to enable the organization to mine and corroborate information from video monitoring systems.The Israel Police C4I Division is also responsible for establishing a supportive computer infrastructure for economic/financial measurement of the various units of the Police. One of the applications Israel Police developed supports event management with regard to the logistic, operational and economic aspects. "Imagine you are managing an event attended by 4,000 police officers. That is not a simple undertaking. How do you plan such an event? What are the budget-related implications? The logistic implications? If you do not manage it properly, you will fail," says Cooperman.
"The system makes it possible to measure every operation with regard to the economic aspect, among other things. This capability has been available to the Israel Police for the past eighteen months. The demand for it had existed for many years, but we did not consolidate a supporting corporate culture yet. Efficient resource management and remaining within the budget limitations were not objectives for our commanders. The change took place as the district commanders demanded independence in the management of their resources. We established for them supporting data systems that incorporate the operational, economic/financial and logistic aspects and everything is eventually measured subject to the PAFS (Preventive & Administrative Focusing Strategies) system (Hebrew designation EMUN), which specifies the objectives for every commander in the Israel Police. The goal is to convert every police station into an independent Business Unit (BU) that would run itself economically/financially according to its objectives," concludes Cooperman.
Without a doubt, the decision by Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh to establish the C4I Division within the Israel Police will "put everything in order" with regard to the division between the build-up of the technological force and its actual employment, using a model that is similar to the one IDF and other security agencies employ. Unified thinking with regard to the build-up of the technological force not only saves money for the public, but also improves the operational performance of the Israel Police, which deals with modern criminal and terrorist organizations that possess substantial funds, technological know-how and access to state-of-the-art civilian products.
