Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD)

One of the organizations that sponsors 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 Sheriff’s Department of Los Angeles County, California, is among the departments that have sent delegates to Israel. Lee Baca served as Sheriff of Los Angeles County between 1998 and 2014. Sheriff Baca attended a training in Israel in 2003, 2006 and 2009. He attended a training in Israel in 2003 sponsored by the Israeli National Police for a seminar titled “United Against Terror: Law Enforcement in the Era of Global Terror.” Sheriff Baca then attended the “Homeland Security Conference on Terrorism” sponsored by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2006. In 2009, he attended a training in Israel sponsored by the Israel National Police for a four-day seminar on “Police and Law Enforcement in the Era of Global Terror” led by Israel Police Chief Shlomo Aharonishky.

Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) officials from the LA County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) attended a training in Israel in 2015. In winter 2008-2009, Sheriff Baca attended a “fact-finding trip” in Israel where he met with Israeli police and military leaders. Baca said his trip was “a show of solidarity” during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead against Gaza, releasing a statement in support of the IDF’s invasion of Gaza. In 2015, Chief Scott Edson of LASD’s Homeland Security Division attended a training in Israel sponsored by the ADL’s ATS program.

Sheriff Baca was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison in 2017 after he was convicted of obstruction of justice and lying in alleged interference in FBI investigation into inmate abuse and corruption, but he remains free while he appeals his conviction. Baca will remain free while his lawyers appeal the recent decision ordering him to report to prison.

Chief Edson is now the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS), a half-a-billion dollar public safety voice and data communications system, to improve radio and broadband communication for law enforcement and other public safety officials. He spoke in multiple sessions at the 2018 International Wireless Communications Expo.

According to his profile, Chief Edson is “very active” with the National Sheriffs’ Association, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Major County Sheriffs’ Association, Major Cities Chiefs Association, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, among other associations. The National Sheriff’s Association (NSA) helps sheriffs’ offices, departments and associations nationwide to find and prepare applications for state and federal homeland security grant funding, one of the sources that provide funding for trainings in Israel to local, state and federal law enforcement and public agencies.

Chief Edson is a frequent representative of these associations on committees, working groups and meetings of law enforcement officials. Additionally, he is the Chair of the International Public Safety Association Board of Directors.