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A group of 20 leaders from top Georgia law-enforcement agencies have returned from a two-week program learning about community policing in Israel.
The delegation included Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Michael Register, who served as its head, along with 12 Georgia police chiefs, three sheriffs and officials from the Georgia Department of Public Safety and the Georgia Public Safety Training Center. One Tennessee police chief also tagged along.
Hosted by the Israel Police, 30th annual peer-to-peer exchange was organized under the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, or GILEE, a research center within the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.
Since its founding in the early 1990s, GILEE, as it’s known, has conducted more than 500 programs touching more than 43,000 police, homeland security and public safety executives. Law enforcement officials from Georgia have connected with their counterparts in 25 countries to share best practices. Some 1,250 have graduated from peer-to-peer exchanges like the one undertaken in Israel.
While there, the group exchanged ideas on building safer communities for minorities using community policing, the practice of improving communication and engagement between law enforcement and the neighborhoods they’re charged with protecting.
Founding Director Robbie Friedmann and Associate Director Brent Cummings led the delegation from the GILEE side.
Before departure, the executives heard from prior participants including Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King, who gave a keynote speech urging them to share knowledge gained from what he promised would be a transformative professional development experience.
A news release from the Georgia Department of Public Safety did not list the organizations with which the group collaborated on the ground in Israel or to which cities the delegates traveled. GILEE has worked with Israel for many years, with previous programs generating partnerships with the National
The exchanges go both ways: In Atlanta last month, GILEE helped organize a visit by German educators and police executives to learn how metro Atlanta police forces embrace innovation and technology, recruit officers and invest in education.
Read more on that trip and the broader GILEE programs here:
Exchange Program Brings German Police to Atlanta to Share Best Practices, Innovations
Learn more about GILEE at https://gilee.gsu.edu.
