Frontenac Police Department

One of the organizations that sponsor these trainings is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The ADL is a non-profit that works to combat anti-Semitism and advocate for Israel. In this context, the ADL runs a National Counter-Terrorism Seminar that has sent hundreds of top ranking officials to Israel to learn about combatting terror since 2003. That same year the ADL established an Advanced Training School that brings delegations of Israeli law enforcement to speak to American law enforcement officials, involving over 1,000 U.S. participants since the program began.

The Police Department of Frontenac, Missouri, is among the departments that have sent delegates to Israel. Tom Becker serves as Chief of Frontenac Police Department, coming to the department after 21 years of FBI service. Chief Becker attended a training in Israel in 2017 with the ADL as a delegate of their first regional Western States/St. Louis Counter-Terrorism Seminar, modeled after the National Counter-Terrorism Seminar. Chief Becker’s training includes meetings with Israeli military commanders, members of the Israel National Police and the Palestinian Authority police, and also includes Israeli checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and a visit to the Israeli prison system. He is on the Board of Directors of the Missouri Police Chiefs Charitable Foundation where he serves as a Regional Director.

According to the local newspaper, the police officials interviewed about this training said that they didn’t see problems in the Palestinian treatment by the Israeli military and police, and they didn’t see problems in their own departments treatment of Black Americans.