Georgia DPS Official Returns from Leadership Training in Israel

Lt. Col. Joshua Lamb, Assistant Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety, has returned to Georgia after participating in a rigorous two-week public safety leadership training program in Israel. The training was part of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange’s (GILEE) 31st annual peer-to-peer executive education program, which is recognized by both the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Treasury as a professional education initiative.

Lt. Col. Lamb served as the Head of Delegation for a group of 17 officials, including Georgia police chiefs, sheriffs, command staff, and a deputy director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The delegation was led by GILEE Director Col. (Ret.) Brent Cummings and managed by GILEE Founding Director Robbie Friedmann and Associate Director Nadia Borissova.

GILEE is dedicated to enhancing public safety through the development of police executive leadership. It provides a peer-to-peer experiential learning environment that emphasizes homeland security and community policing while protecting civil rights and liberties. The program includes global professional exchanges with various international law enforcement agencies, including the Israel Police.

During the program, the delegation learned about leadership strategies for law enforcement and community policing techniques aimed at building safer neighborhoods, especially for minority communities.

“We expose our delegates to policing systems under different cultures, legal systems, and structures to help enhance their professional leadership development,” said Cummings. “For example, leadership dilemmas faced by Israel Police executives are relevant to leadership dilemmas our delegates face at home. They learn to recognize challenges and how to better deal with them while forming their own thoughts on how to be better leaders. Our delegates learn important lessons from their peers on how to better serve their own communities.”

Col. Billy Hitchens, Georgia’s Commissioner of Public Safety, spoke to this year’s GILEE delegates about how his experiences as a delegate led to improvements in his agency’s security protocols. He recounted a visit to a local police station in Israel, where the chief led them to a reception at a local sheik’s home, demonstrating the impact of community policing.

“Chief Davidov, the commander of the Rahat police station, was our guide for this event,” Hitchens said. “You could tell the pride he had in telling us about the progress he and his team had made in his community. That was obvious when we went to the sheik’s home. The sheik went on to tell us how much the police had bridged the gap in the community under the chief’s leadership. It was a great example of what community policing can do to bring a community together.”

Israel Police Commander Jear Davidov, the commander of the Rahat police station and a 2022 GILEE graduate, was honored during the delegation’s visit. Davidov was killed on October 7, 2023, while battling Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Re’im.

Over its 33-year history, GILEE has seen more than 1,300 law enforcement executives from the U.S. and various countries graduate from its programs. Additionally, over 45,000 public safety, homeland security, and police executives have attended GILEE-led briefings, seminars, workshops, training sessions, and conferences.

GILEE operates as a research center within Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. It focuses on the protection of civil and human rights during the development of executive leadership. The program is funded through external sources, with no financial support from Georgia State University or the Georgia State University Foundation.