Baldwin Police Chief Jeff Branyon has returned to the city after a two-week intensive public safety leadership training in Israel.
Branyon trained alongside Israel’s police executives, Georgia police chiefs and command staff, sheriffs, the director of the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council and a Georgia Bureau of Investigation assistant director.
The training program in partnership with the Israel Police was held by the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange’s (GILEE), a research center within Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. The research center’s goal is to enhance public safety by “nurturing partnerships within and across public law enforcement agencies and the private sector.”
“Acknowledging the more than 700,000 American police who have served on the front lines during an unprecedented pandemic and period of social unrest, GILEE’s delegates learned more about strategies to successfully lead ongoing, nonstop law enforcement services while building stronger, safer and better community relations through community policing,” the GILEE said in a press release.
More than 1,100 public safety officials—most from Georgia—have participated in the program in Israel. More than 40,000 have attended additional GILEE trainings, briefings, seminars and workshops in Georgia and around the world.
“Trying to describe the meaningful impact of participating in the GILEE delegation to Israel to others is no small task,” said Chief Janet Moon of the Peachtree City Police Department, president of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, and a GILEE delegate in 2015. “Observing how the Israeli Police interacted with people very diverse from them was inspirational. The Israeli Police embraced this diversity within its own ranks as well. I found the experience very rewarding in a way that led me to expand upon my commitment and resolve to utilize principles of community policing.”
