In December 2014, ADL held the 24th session of its Advanced Training School (ATS) course on Extremist and Terrorist Threats, a course that has come to be recognized as one of the premier counterterrorism trainings in the country. The course, held twice yearly, provides approximately 40 senior level law enforcement officials from local, state and federal agencies with expertise, information and resources to combat domestic and international extremism and terrorism. More than 890 law enforcement executives from 240 agencies have participated in ATS since it was launched in 2003. The ADL Pacific Southwest Region has sent law enforcement officials to almost every ATS session.
The most recent ATS participant from the Pacific Southwest Region, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Major Crimes Lieutenant Ken Wegener, reported that he “made quality contacts during the seminar and [looks] forward to future contacts with ADL in Los Angeles and abroad.”
The three-day intensive training in Washington, DC included a combination of both ADL’s own subject matter experts on white supremacy, anti-government extremism, and homegrown radicalization, and briefings on: the Westgate Mall attack in Kenya and Mumbai attacks from the FBI; the Boston Marathon bombings from a Lieutenant Colonel from the Massachusetts State Police; and Israel’s best practices and lessons learned in fighting terrorism from a Chief Superintendent with the Israel Police.