On 1.5.2020 ACRI appealed to the Deputy Attorney General (Criminal) requesting that she instruct the police that they do not have the authority to enforce oversight of mandatory quarantine. In the appeal, Attorney Anne Sucio and ACRI’s Chief Legal Counsel Attorney Dan Yakir, claimed that so long as emergency regulations were in place that authorized the police to locate the phones of people under mandatory quarantine, the police had the authority to monitor them through comparing the location indicated via their telephone with their designated quarantine location. These regulations expired on 22.4.2020 and the government decided to freeze the Knesset debate on the bill intended to replace them following scathing criticism on justification for the bill, on behalf of members of Knesset.
The emergency regulations that are still in effect grant the police authority to demand information and enter homes, yet solely for those suspected of having committed an offense through violating quarantine. The regulations do not authorize the police to visit civilian homes without reasonable suspicion. The violation was further exacerbated once the police commenced use of drones to capture aerial photographs of what takes place in the apartments of those under mandatory quarantine.
We thus requested that the Deputy Attorney General instruct the police that they are prohibited from carrying out visits to inspect the homes of those in quarantine without reasonable suspicion that they are violating the obligation.
On 26.5.2929 we sent a letter to remind the Deputy Attorney General to instruct the police that any fine issued on the basis of inspecting someone under mandatory quarantine without reasonable suspicion and sufficient authority is void, and that the police must annul them on their own initiative.