GREENSBORO, Ga. — It’s not often that a sheriff goes out of the country to learn from other law enforcement officials, but that’s exactly what happened recently when Greene County Sheriff Donnie Harrison did such.

The country was Israel.

He wasn’t by himself.

The sheriff and 15 other law enforcement officers, including fellow sheriffs, as well as chiefs of police and other command staff from several counties and cities across Georgia, recently spent two weeks in the Middle Eastern country.

“It was the honor of a lifetime to serve with the 29th Delegation to Israel ad represent the community that I serve,” Sheriff Harrison said. “I was so humbled to be selected from a large group of my peers from across the state, and an experience that I will never forget.” 

Others joining Sheriff Harrison included the director of the Atlanta-Carolina’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program, as well as an inspector with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), a captain with the Georgia State Patrol, and a senior law enforcement official from the State of Tennessee.

They all went to Israel to engage in what was described as a two-week, peer-to-peer, and intensive executive leadership training with command staff from a wide-range of divisions and departments of the Israel Police.

During that period, Sheriff Harrison and those with him attended various briefings and training with the top person of the Israel Police – the commissioner, himself.

Other top Israel officials, whom the United States delegation of law enforcement officials interacted with included the director of the Israel Prison Service, along with police precinct commanders from Western Galilee, Haifa, Jerusalem, Eilat, the director of training with the Israel Police, and representatives from the Israel Boarder Police and Traffic Enforcement.

Three months before the training program, the Georgia Legislature passed a bi-partisan 

resolution that emphasized a strong cultural, economic and academic bond between Georgia and the State of Israel, as exemplified by the robust exchanges of Georgia’s Law Enforcement Professionals with Israel through Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE). 

GILEE is a research center within Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.

It is spearheaded by Dr. Robbie Friedmann, who serves as director. He is assisted by Brent Cummings and Nadia Borissova.