Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

One of the organizations that organize and sponsor these trainings is the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA). JINSA is a think tank that advocates for US-Israeli security cooperation, increased domestic military spending, and military aid to Israel, and has board members with close ties to US defense contractors. JINSA launched its Law Enforcement Exchange Program (LEEP) shortly after 9/11, and since 2002 has run annual trips to Israel for US federal, state, and local law enforcement. Over 11,000 additional American law enforcement officials have attended LEEP conferences nationwide, which bring in Israeli security officials as experts.

The Police Department of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is among the departments that have sent delegates to Israel. Kenneth Greene has served as Chief of MBTA Police since 2014. Chief Greene attended a training in Israel with the ADL as a delegate of the National Counter-Terrorism Seminar in November 2014. The group toured Israel police districts, including meeting with police from the Palestinian Authority, and learned how shoppers are searched when entering a mall.

One delegate attending the training with Chief Greene remarked:

“…their [mall] security forces are like small police forces, and they train continuously, three times a day.

Another participant said after his training:

Life is very different there. We are not searched before entering malls. Religious sites dont have significant police presence.

Another officer remarked:

…within each territory “ Areas A, B and C, Israel, Jewish Israel, or the Palestinian Authority, police really dont care about the political stuff, only as far as it helps them investigate.”

Prior to Chief Greene, Joseph C. Carter served as Chief of MBTA Police Department between 2003 and 2007. Chief Carter attended a training in Israel with JINSA as a delegate of the LEEP program. Carter served as First Vice President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) between 2005 and 2006 and as its President between 2006 and 2007. Chief Carter left the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police in September 2007 to take the full-time Adjutant General’s position in the state’s National Guard, and then agreed to retire after he was suspended due to rape charges.