RAND turns its eyes to Israel

The State of Israel wants advice regarding the strengths and weaknesses of its police force and has commissioned an operational study with the Santa Monica-based think tank the RAND Corp.

Greg Ridgeway, director of the RAND Safety and Justice Program, said the concerns of the Israel Police are with benchmarking, performance measurement, deterrence, crime prevention and community policing.

“We’re not talking about the counter-terrorism stuff,” Ridgeway said. “We’re talking about the policing that you and I would experience if we need help from the police: complaints about the neighbors, your car gets stolen, there’s a break-in. This is 99 percent of policing, and that’s where the Israel police feel like they’re falling short.”

The study began in August 2010, and RAND expects to complete its work by December 2012. Los Angeles-based philanthropists are contributing 51 percent of the funding for the study through RAND’s Israel Public Policy Fund (IPPF), while the other 49 percent will come from Israel’s Finance Ministry.

RAND has no affiliation with Israel or Judaism.

Ridgeway, who has spearheaded past police review projects in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City, said the seven-person team assigned to this project is going to use hard numbers, such as crime statistics, in addition to observational and interview information to assess the areas of weakness in the Israel Police, whose force includes more than 20,000 officers. RAND will also look at the public opinion of the police.

“Every organization wants to be popular and for people to like them,” Ridgeway said. “But for policing, it is essential to their mission. If the police do not have the trust of the public, then the effectiveness of the police deteriorates.”

The police project marks the second major project RAND has worked on in Israel. The first, completed in 2009, was a study examining the role natural gas should play in Israel’s future. The natural gas study, along with many other studies from RAND’s 63-year history, is published online and can be downloaded for free.

The natural gas study was funded by a grant from the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Family Foundation. After the natural gas project, the Israeli government asked RAND to look into other endeavors that would benefit Israel internally. For future projects in Israel, RAND set up the IPPF, to which other philanthropists could contribute.

The estimated cost of the policing project is $1.6 million.

Stanley Gold, president and CEO of Shamrock Holdings, has contributed money to the IPPF at RAND and is helping get other philanthropists involved as well. The project, Gold said, didn’t start from Americans telling Israelis what was wrong with their police.

“These are not problems that are identified here in Los Angeles but rather on the ground, by Israelis,” Gold said.

Gold also said he plans on being involved in future RAND projects.

The Younes & Soraya Nazarian Family Foundation will again contribute to RAND’s study, as will real estate mogul Dick Ziman.

Ziman said the RAND Corp. has the resources and the skills to execute studies that Israel would normally not have the means to undertake. By utilizing the fund, Israel can hold on to the skills RAND possesses.

Steven Popper, the director of the RAND Israel Initiative and the principal investigator on the natural gas project, said the IPPF marks an evolution in philanthropy to Israel.

“At one point, Jewish philanthropy consisted of purchasing land in Israel,” Popper said by phone from Israel. “Now, in Israel, I think there is a need for looking at the system. Looking at how the policy is formed and decisions are made. How the needs of the country are addressed.”

RAND compiled a diverse team of researchers, including a former police chief, to look at police departments in every district of Israel. Each member of the team will split time between Israel and the RAND headquarters in Santa Monica. The diversity of talents is a point of pride for RAND, but it is now part of its procedure and its corporate culture.

RAND will also consult a steering committee consisting of the Israel Police, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Finance and the prime minister’s office.

To RAND, this is another unbiased study in its long history.

“This is a nonpolitical way that they can help support and strengthen Israel,” RAND’s development director, Kate O’Neal, said.

RAND is slated to work on three more projects in Israel — examining Israeli transportation and infrastructure, economic development in the Eilat region, and economic development in Negev and Galilee.

The future projects would give RAND a strong presence in Israel for many years to come.

O’Neal said each future project will cost about $1 million, which would mean about $500,000 would need to be raised by the IPPF for each study.

“One way to give back to the State of Israel is to help with the policy decisions, especially in the long term,” said Sharon Baradaran, president of the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Family Foundation.

“A lot of different parts of the government are left making short-term decisions especially rather than looking long term. That’s what RAND is really good at,” Baradaran added.