Israeli police pull a fast one to limit their workload

Israeli police inundated with speeding tickets decided to limit their workload by tampering with the cameras that catch drivers in the act, a government report said Thursday.

Police changed settings on cameras to drastically increase speed limits, even quadrupling it in at least one case, according to the report by the state comptroller, cited by Israeli media.

On Jerusalem's Hebron Road, a major thoroughfare, radars were changed to allow for speeds of 150 kilometres per hour (95 miles an hour) instead of 80.

Along Tel Aviv's Namir Boulevard, drivers were allowed in theory to floor it, with the limit raised to 250 kilometres per hour instead of 60.

Police tampered with the cameras because they were unable to cope with the influx of speeding tickets that resulted from a new network of cameras, said the report by the comptroller, which tracks the activities and spending of government departments.

The government decided in 2005 to install 300 radars at a cost of 100 million shekels ($25 million, 23 million euros).

According to the report, police also regularly cancel speeding tickets for members of the force even when they receive them while off-duty.

Some 1,400 tickets were cancelled, amounting to more than half of those given to officers between 2012 and 2015, it said.