Canceling a Police Record – What Is Erased and What Remains

The first step is always a review

Before submitting an application, you must know exactly what exists: which cases, on what grounds, and their status. An inaccurate application is rejected and may make a later application more difficult.

It is important to understand the procedure's limits

Not every record can be deleted, and the law sets periods and conditions. A lawyer examines which route is realistic in your case and which sequence of steps maximizes the chances.

How does the criminal record registry work?

The Criminal Information and Rehabilitation of Offenders Law regulates the criminal record registry and the police registry. Alongside convictions, certain decisions without a conviction may also be recorded. The limitation and deletion periods are determined according to the type of record and the data listed by law, and they reduce the bodies authorized to receive the information and the use of it. Legal deletion is not necessarily the physical destruction of all information, and not all records are subject to the same periods.

Why is this so important?

A criminal record may affect acceptance for a position, a license, an immigration proceeding, or another decision, but it does not create an automatic disqualification in every field. The effect depends on the type of record, the timing, the connection to the position, and the provisions that apply to the deciding body. Information about closed cases is also accessible only to bodies authorized to do so by law. For this reason, it is advisable to check what information may be disclosed and what the options are for correcting the record or reducing its consequences.

The routes for shortening and deletion

A clemency application to the President of the State: the President is authorized to shorten limitation and deletion periods and even erase convictions, through a reasoned application supported by evidence of rehabilitation, employment, and personal circumstances. Cancellation of a police record: an application to the police to delete closed cases, according to the ground for closure, the severity of the offense, and the time that has passed. Changing the ground for closure to lack of guilt: completely erases the record. Each route has its own rules, timeframes, and manner of drafting, and an application that has been rejected makes a subsequent one more difficult.

Legal representation

Israel Arama, formerly of the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office, handles applications for deletion, clemency, and cancellation of records, including gathering the evidentiary foundation that supports the application. It is important to prepare a well-founded application; a rejection does not always preclude another application. In a clemency application, according to the guidelines of the President's Residence, it is possible to apply again after six months or following a significant change in circumstances. Contact us for an initial consultation with no obligation.

Three grounds, three worlds

A criminal case that did not mature into an indictment is closed on one of three grounds, and the difference between them is enormous: lack of guilt, the determination that the suspect did not commit what was attributed to him; the police record is deleted entirely. Lack of evidence, insufficient evidence was found for prosecution; the police record remains. Lack of public interest (or "the circumstances of the matter do not justify prosecution"), the record remains here as well. The police record, although it is not a "criminal record" of a conviction, is accessible to security bodies, authorities, and authorized entities, and affects enlistment, security clearance, firearms licenses, public positions, and immigration proceedings.

Change of ground for closure

A person whose case was closed for lack of evidence or because the circumstances of the matter are not suitable for prosecution may consider filing a reasoned request to change the ground to absence of guilt. The request must be based on the investigative material and the appropriate legal grounds. A rejection does not create a sweeping rule of a single opportunity: it is possible to consider an objection according to the deciding authority, the guidelines, and the circumstances.