A shakeup within the Israeli police was uncovered whereby beat cops are accusing the top brass of fabricating crime reports and ordering subordinates to lie when recording police reports according to Maariv.

According to the bombshell report, high-ranking officers in the Israeli police will go to almost any lengths to show that crime has dropped under their watch including compelling lower-ranking police in the field to manipulate crime reports. The phenomenon was initially uncovered by Tzinor journalist Bar Shem Or.

Or explained in an interview with radio host Eral Segal that tens of police officers that relay information to the reporter tell them how the police are being managed. He added that last week, Shem Or revealed that the police publish fake lower crime statistics to the media in an effort to convince the public that their efforts at reducing crime are successful.

“In reality, it’s a political game in every sense of the word,” he said.

According to Shem Or, many of the investigations are canceled and crimes are downgraded to misdemeanors. The result is “beat-cops turning into statisticians in a system that only cares about PR to the Israeli public” he added.

The police also said that high-ranking officers tell them to lie and to ‘be creative’. The police say that they are ordered to patrol streets to give parking tickets but not on dangerous ones where crime actually happens as each station has a quota of tickets that must be given each month.

Shem Or adds that this phenomenon is not recent: “it is designed into the law enforcement system, everyone knows it. There are officers that say that it has been happening for years.”

He adds that there is an “insurrection” within the police ranks over the matter between beat cops and the upper brass. Officers in private Facebook groups of the Israeli police acknowledge the problem and back the lower-ranking officers. The head police commissioner called the whistle-blowing officers “extremists.”

The Israeli police spokesperson responded to the controversy saying: We thank (journalist) Gai Lerer and his program for his concern for the Israeli police, and this is the path for those who chose to interview hiding behind anonymity. and with no way of identifying them. To us, it is clear that these people quit the force or those who were fired for reasons we will not disclose. Not everyone is suitable to serve as a police officer and as it seems, the way they have chosen to behave proves it.