Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department

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 Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is another organization that organizes and sponsors these trainings. 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 Santa Clara County, California, is among the departments that have sent delegates to Israel. Laurie Smith served as Sheriff of Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department since 1998. Sheriff Laurie Smith attendeda training in Israel with JINSA as a delegate of the LEEP program in 2005. Additionally, in 2013, officials serving in the department attended a training in Israel with the ADL as delegates of the Western States Counter-Terrorism Seminar, modeled after the National Counter-Terrorism Seminar.

Related: In 2017, Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen attended a training in Israel along with the Bay Area Law Enforcement Delegation, that included prosecutors, police officers and judges.