The City Enforcement Department was established in June 1996 to provide greater efficiency and improve the role of the network of urban enforcement units by bringing them together into a single municipal system. The City Enforcement Department includes the Departments of Municipal Supervision, Parking, and Business Licensing, whose main responsibility is to enforce municipal bylaws and national laws.

The City Enforcement Department is charged with enforcing municipal bylaws concerning order and cleanliness, signs on businesses, and legal and illegal peddling. The Department for Enforcing Parking Arrangements is responsible for enforcing parking arrangements in areas where such arrangements have been made and preventing parking in areas and along routes where it is forbidden. The Business Licensing Department is charged with providing licenses to various types of businesses, supervising sanitation arrangements in local businesses, and licensing signs over business.

In 1997, the Department focused on the following issues: improving service to residents by expanding available information; involving residents in the supervision of cleanliness and the increased enforcement of order and cleanliness (special emphasis was placed on East and North Jerusalem). Additional issues raised this year included the supervision of peddlers, the rapid treatment of excessive dust and building waste, continued parking enforcement, etc.