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POLICE OFFICERS ATTEND HOMELAND SECURITY TRAINING IN ISRAEL
There is an overwhelming consensus in the homeland security industry that the Israeli military, police and civilian security agencies are the most efficient in the world at implementing homeland security and counter-terrorism activities. The very survival of their country depends upon it. As a consequence, the Israelis have historically been reluctant to divulge their very successful techniques and methods. A few years ago, however, the Israelis signed an agreement with security ministers from around the world to share technology and information on methods to improve the worldwide homeland security mission. It has been the goal of the Stamford Police Department to take advantage of this opportunity to learn homeland security and counter-terrorism measures from the very best in the world.
Through a grant funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Stamford Police Foundation, the Stamford Police Department was able to realize this goal. The Department utilized this funding to send a delegation of seven public safety officers to Israel for advanced homeland security training in September. The delegation was led by William Callion, the Director of Public Safety, Health and Welfare, and was comprised of six officers from the homeland security and bomb squad units. The training mission was provided by Security Solutions International, a private company with vast experience in the security industry. In fact, the training mission provided by SSI is the only one that has been approved by the US Department of Homeland Security for funding. This was the 12th training mission SSI conducted in Israel.
The eight day training was quite extensive and challenging. The hands-on and lecture training was focused on homeland security and counter-terrorism in areas such as: public safety at large scale events, retail centers, public transportation including security measures at train stations, sea and air ports, critical infrastructures including power plants, universities and schools, government buildings including the Knesset and Israel’s Defense Forces Pentagon, the Olympic village, VIP protection, suicide terror and vehicle-born improvised explosive devices. The program also included training in Krav Maga, Israeli Martial Arts, and Close Combat Discipline. The instructors were all experts in their fields and prominent members of Israel’s law enforcement and special operations forces.
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Now that they have returned from Israel, the officers will be conducting training classes to share what they learned with other members of the Stamford Police Department at our training academy. These officers will also be available to conduct training with other police departments to reinforce the regional homeland security effort, as well as private security agencies specializing in the fields of homeland security and counter-terrorism. The end result will be that the Department will be able to utilize this knowledge to implement the most advanced homeland security and counter-terrorism measures that are most pertinent to Stamford.
As a leading business center in the world that is home to several major financial institutions and corporate facilities, this will be of increased importance in an uncertain world. It is the intention of the Stamford Police Department to send additional officers to future training missions to Israel in order to make certain that we are employing the most current techniques in the industry. All these efforts will ensure that we successfully achieve the most primary goal of our homeland security mission: to protect our citizens from harm in a potential or real terrorist attack.
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