Corruption Risk Assessment of the Traffic Department in Palestine

-        ❖ Quoted froma studyby the(AMAN) February 2023 :    "- February- "and the Coalitionforintegrityandaccountability (AMAN, 2023 Corruption Risk Managementin thePoliceApparatusincludinggender-basedcorruption (PublicSecurityDepartment, and TrafficDepartmentasamodel) Ramallah – Palestine"❖

-        ❖ This (study) comes within the framework of joint cooperation between both the Palestinian Police Force and the Civil Forum for Promoting Good Governance in the Security Sector ❖

-        The administrative decisions related to the monitoring of violations such as: the decision to stop the vehicle...

-        There are many reasons for stopping that may attract the attention of a traffic officer, such as: that they be legitimate and logical reasons to stop the vehicle, and to check its license, and the driver’s personal license, but the decision may deviate from the legal course if the traffic officer targets a certain category of drivers.... or certain vehicles and not others, for personal, racist or class-based reasons, such as: targeting public vehicles, which carry yellow plates , or the dialect the driver speaks, indicative of the governorate or village to which he belongs, which increases his chances of escaping the violation.!

-        The impact is great in the event the deviation occurs, because of the damage it may cause to the prestige of the police institution and its reputation in general...

-        It is also not easy for the victim to prove the injustice committed against him, because his word will be set against the word of the officer who holds the status of a Judicial Police Officer, which makes the traffic violation,  a legal document that enjoys a high degree of credibility, in a way that makes it impossible to prove its falsity..!

-        That is, the traffic officer selects certain vehicles or their drivers, even though others committed the same violation, and this makes it difficult to prove the injustice that befell them, or weakens their position in defending themselves..!

-        The likelihood of a deviant decision is relatively high because of the difficulty of proving the deviation, and even if there is proof, the officer at most faces being transferred to a traffic department in another governorate, and he will return and commit his deviation in the second governorate.!

·       Another example of the possibility of a deviant decision is: failing to issue a citation for someone who committed a traffic violation,  which arises from the fact that the violator works in the Police Force, or one of the security agencies, or the government, or because the violator belongs to the same clan or village as the traffic officer, as a citation may be overlooked because the driver paid a monetary bribe to the officer since the deviation often occurs    away from any third party

·       A third example of the possibility of a traffic officer’s decision deviating is : notentering the traffic violation into the computerized electronic system (entering the data attached to the violation into the computerized electronic system according to a numerical sequence following the violation ticket book)..or: not entering the violation into the system or changing its description from a more serious one to a description that requires  a lesser fine...!

·       A fourth example of the possibility of a traffic officer’s decision deviating is: dismissing the traffic citation at the court, since the competent magistrate judge has the authority to close the file (erase the citation), according to the provisions of the law, for example one can imagine a deviation here in the failure of traffic officers to issue a citation, against members of the judiciary, or drivers of government vehicles..! ...

-        As for traffic citations that are issued to government vehicles,  they are referred to the competent court, which in turn issues a default judgment of conviction, and the payment of a financial fine as a penalty for the violator,  yet the judicial ruling is not followed by any financial collection or execution measures, which prompts police officers to refrain from issuing citations, since they are pointless for them in achieving deterrence, so citations committed by public authority members, or the judicial authority..!

·       And a final example ...of the possibility of a deviation in a traffic officer’s decision is: issuing a technical expert report regarding the circumstances of the accident..which represents the backbone of the work of the Accidents Department, and the correct logical course of the decision is that the accident expert writes his technical opinion regarding the accident and its circumstances independently and honestly. One can imagine the decision deviating by the accident expert falsifying facts and writing a misleading report that would turn truth into falsehood, or make falsehood appear as truth. The accident expert’s motive may be to obtain a personal gain such as a bribe or to exploit his position to obtain a benefit in return for his deviation in favor of one of the parties, and one of the parties may have influence or a high-ranking position within government institutions, which affects the integrity   of the decision made by the traffic accident expert in the Traffic Department, in deterring him from adhering to the truth, or proclaiming it...!

-        The negative impact left by a deviation in the technical report is very great; the technical report is the strongest document and the most credible evidence for both the competent court and insurance companies in general,  and it is the document that insurance companies rely on in paying compensation and removing damages, and the report is of paramount importance in determining the party responsible for deaths, or serious injuries among people..!

·       Gender-based corruption risk assessment at the Traffic Department 

-        Women are affected by the risks of corruption to a greater extent than men, perhaps because women represent the weaker group in society compared to men..!. police corruption is no exception in this regard. Women may be affected by corruption related to the work of the Traffic Department in a different way compared to men, who have greater opportunities to raise their voices, demand their rights, and access relevant institutions or persons to bolster their defenses against corruption...!

·       The decision to stop vehicles driven by women, and to issue a violation against them

-        This study mentioned that one can imagine the deviation, with a traffic officer selecting vehicles driven by girls or women to stop them for any of the following reasons:

·       The officer may hold certainideas about women, such as believing, for example, that a woman should not drive a vehicle, and therefore she deserves the citation ..or choosing women because they are less combative,  and submit to instructions, without causing trouble.. while subjecting them to a sense of superiority and domination.. and the reason may be the traffic officer’s desire to get close to women, and his attempt to harass and exploit them...!

●      As for the likelihood of that deviation occurring, it can be described as high ..since the absence of body-worn cameras on traffic police officers while performing their duties may deter the complainant from filing her complaint, against an officer due to her prior knowledge that her word will be set against the word of the traffic officer, who enjoys the status of a Judicial Police Officer, and also because there are often no female traffic officers ..

●      To be continued...