CAIRO — After several incidents of police brutality this year, the public and politicians are calling for amendments to laws governing police authority and behavior. They are also calling for military trials of police officers — something that was abolished in 2011.

Some of the incidents spurring public protests include the Feb. 18 shooting of taxi driver Mohammed Adel Ismail by a police officer after an argument over the fare, the assault on doctors at Matariya hospital the week before and the harassment of a woman in the Cairo metro earlier this year.

People from Cairo's al-Darb al-Ahmar district gathered last month in front of the city's security directorate to protest. Soon after, seven officers from the Coalition of Low-Ranking Police Officers were arrested as they were preparing to appear on television to discuss the situation. The officers were charged with incitement to actions that would harm their service, taking part in an illegal organization aiming to disrupt the police force, calling for a strike and obstructing the work of a public institution.

These accusations raised indignation among some police officers, who blocked a road facing the Egyptian Media Production City on Feb. 21. Their protest sparked officer Ahmad Mustapha, general coordinator of the police union, to address the issue in an interview with Al-Monitor, saying, “Policemen are at the core of the Interior Ministry, for there are nine times as many policemen as high-ranking officers. Recently, a systematic campaign was launched against [policemen] over alleged violations.”