Every year, American law enforcement executives travel to Israel with ADL to study first hand Israel’s tactics and strategies to combat terrorism. The National Counter-Terrorism Seminar (NCTS) is an intensive week long course led by senior commanders in the Israel National Police, experts from Israel’s intelligence and security services, and the Israel Defense Forces. More than 175 law enforcement executives have participated in 12 NCTS sessions since 2004, taking the lessons they learned in Israel back to the United States.
The tour included high-level briefings on the operational response to terrorism, border and airport security, maintaining safety and access to holy sites, the role of advanced technology in policing, and use of media during a crisis. The week-long seminar also provided opportunities to tour some of Israel’s most significant archaeological and religious sites, and to learn about Israeli society.
This year, among the 16 senior law enforcement officials that participated in the summer 2016 mission was San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon. His agency, along with the FBI, ATF and San Bernardino Police Department, oversaw the law enforcement response to the December 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in which 14 people were killed and 22 were wounded. In March 2016, these four agencies, along with an additional ten law enforcement departments, were awarded ADL’s coveted Helene and Joseph Sherwood Prize for Fighting Hate.
“The ADL does an incredible job educating law enforcement officials on terrorism, hate, and a variety of other things,” Sheriff McMahon said. “To come over and interact with the Israeli National Police to see how they deal with the multiple cultures, the extremism, and terrorism, is an opportunity of a lifetime for us.”
Adding that terrorist attacks in the US are becoming increasingly prevalent, McMahon said American law enforcement is entering a world which Israel knows well. “We’re very good with intelligence and the things that we’re used to,” he said, “This is a new world for us, and so we can learn a lot from [law enforcement] in Israel, because this is something they’ve been dealing with for a number of years, and they have a lot of experience to share.”
Other mission participants were law enforcement executives from the Chicago Police Department, Colorado Springs Police Department, City of Forth Worth Police Department, Illinois State Police, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, New York City Police Department, New Jersey State Police, Orlando Police Department, Pennsylvania State Police, Prince George’s County Police Department, Salt Lake City Police Department, United States Customs and Border Protection, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Marshals Service and the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department.
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