Billy Mixon, Director of the Georgia Command College at Columbus State University has returned after an intensive two weeks of public safety leadership training with Israel’s top police executives. He trained in Israel with another 13 Georgia police chiefs and command staff, two sheriffs, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation inspector and executives from the Georgia State Patrol and Stone Mountain Department of Public Safety.
 
"This was a great opportunity and a remarkable experience,” said Mixon. “The unity of purpose between the citizens and the Israeli public safety department sets the standard for community policing.  The professionalism and generosity of our hosts in sharing their strategic and operational strategies allows me to blend best practices, theirs and ours, into the leadership curriculum here at Command College.  I am grateful for this extraordinary opportunity to see first-hand how a proactive governmental unit can positively impact the lives of so many people."
 
Mixon was in a 21-member delegation of senior law enforcement officials from Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina participating in the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange’s (GILEE) 27th annual peer-to-peer training program in partnership with Israel. While there, the delegates were shown best practices and the latest technologies in policing and public safety. This year’s focus was on community policing, which assumes a need for greater accountability of police, a greater public share in decision-making and a greater concern for civil rights and liberties.
 
“Our GILEE delegates return with new ways of developing, collaborating on and using strategies to minimize the production of crime and terrorism,” said GILEE executive director Steve Heaton. “In GILEE’s 27 years, many of these graduates have gone on to serve in key leadership roles in Georgia and beyond.”
 
GILEE is a research unit within Georgia State’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. It enhances public safety by nurturing existing and new partnerships within and across public agencies and the private sector. It has received multiple awards and honors, including the Special Service Award from the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police and the Georgia Governor’s Public Safety Award. More than 770 public safety officials—most from Georgia—have participated in the program in Israel. Nearly 35,000 have attended additional GILEE trainings, briefings, seminars and workshops in Georgia and around the world.