Oconee County Sheriff’s Office

The Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) is one of the organizations that organize and sponsor these joint trainings. As a joint program of the Georgia State University and local law enforcement, GILEE works to foster cooperation between law enforcement agencies in Georgia and Israel, educating Israeli law enforcement on community policing and training Georgia law enforcement on counter-terrorism. Since its establishment, GILEE has run law enforcement executive development and trainings to enhance homeland security, through 450 programs that reached over 33,000 law enforcement and other executives across over 25 states and 25 countries.

The Sheriff’s Office of Oconee County, Georgia, is among the departments that have sent delegates to Israel. Scott Berry has served as Sheriff of Oconee County since 1993, and attended a GILEE training in Israel in 2013. The same year, he and his department boycotted a major firearms dealer because the company had decided to limit the sale of some firearms, including semi-automatic rifles, to law enforcement officers only.

He has been criticized in the past for defending an assault on a member of the press in 2017, saying in a Facebook post:

To paraphrase Augustus McCrae, it aint much of a crime whacking a surly reporter […] (the reporter) got shoved on his (tail) and that solved the issue… If I were on a jury I would acquit the defendant.