Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homeland Security Chief Among Law Enforcement Trained by ADL

  • December 24, 2015

A top level law enforcement official from ADL’s Pacific Southwest Region attended ADL’s Advanced Training School (ATS) course on Extremist and Terrorist Threats.  This course, held December 6 to 8 in Washington, DC, is recognized as one of the premier counterterrorism trainings in the country.

Chief Scott Edson, Homeland Security Division, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department participated from the Pacific Southwest Region.  Upon his return from the training, he expressed gratitude to ADL for offering this type of program for senior level law enforcement.  He also noted the impressive level of expertise of the speakers and trainers.

“I recently assumed command of our homeland security and wanted to learn a lot quickly,” said Chief Edson. “I found the information current and relevant.  Your course hit many areas that I found very beneficial: intelligence, counterterrorism, SPL OPS, and a great introduction to the ADL and the resources available. Including an Israeli police executive [was especially] beneficial.  It will help me and my organization [to better] protect [the] citizens [we serve.] Additional benefit is the contacts I made with other students. The class was a great mix of local, state and federal law enforcement. I highly recommend this class to senior law enforcement.”

The course included a combination of both ADL’s own subject matter experts on white supremacy, anti-government extremism, homegrown radicalization, and international terrorist groups, as well as briefings on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) from expert research fellows from world-renowned think tanks, the Boston Marathon bombings from a Lieutenant Colonel in the Massachusetts State Police, and fighting terrorism from the Chief Superintendent of the Israel Police.

The class was composed of 40 law enforcement executives and commanders representing major federal agencies (including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Customs and Border Protection, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, US Secret Service, US Coast Guard, US Marshals Service and US Park Police); commanders from local law enforcement agencies (including from New York, Houston, Miami-Dade, Atlanta, San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas, Newark, Austin, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Baltimore and Los Angeles); and commanders from state agencies (including Missouri State Highway Patrol, Massachusetts State Police, Arizona Department of Public Safety, Washington State Patrol, Colorado Department of Public Safety, and Connecticut State Police).

ATS has now trained more than 1,000 law enforcement commanders from about 250 agencies since the course was launched in 2003.

ATS’s three day sessions, held twice a year in Washington, D.C., are designed to provide chiefs and executives from federal, state, local, and military law enforcement agencies from across the country with practical information, resources, and contacts to help them combat domestic and international extremist and terrorist threats.  There is no other program like it.