Project Harmony two-year partnership with the Greenfield, Wisconsin Police Department brought spectacular value to the Law Enforcement Exchange Program (LEEP) and established lasting professional and personal ties between Milwaukee County and Crimea, Ukraine. Due to Greenfield's solid working relationship with the 17 cities, towns, and villages of Milwaukee County, the two Ukrainian delegations were able to experience first-hand the best that US policing has to offer. Project Harmony has been proud to work with Chief Francis Springob of the Greenfield Police Department and Mr. Terry Witkowski, former Director of the Milwaukee City Safety Commission, to implement this two-year exchange program in the US.

Project Harmony's partnership with the Crimean Law Institute (formerly the Simferopol Affiliate of the Odesa Institute of Internal Affairs) also grew during the two years of the Law Enforcement Exchange Program. Simferopol had been host to a number of Project Harmony program events that helped set the groundwork for the two-year LEEP. Project Harmony would like to thank Colonel Kolyuka and Major-General Pitukhov, Deputy Heads of the Institute and participants of Phase I and Phase III, respectively, who greatly helped strengthen the bond that has developed between Greenfield and Simferopol.

Phase I (March 30 - April 13, 2001) - Greenfield, Wisconsin
A delegation of 10 law enforcement, education and media professionals representing Crimea and Kyiv, Ukraine to Greenfield and Milwaukee County for the first phase of the Simferopol/Greenfield LEEP. While in Greenfield and Milwaukee County, the Ukrainian delegates learned about the relationship between city, county and state police agencies and how each agency puts the philosophy of community policing into practice. The delegation observed a DARE class, met with community crime prevention groups, discussed domestic violence response in Wisconsin, and observed Milwaukee County police training programs.

Phase II (September 6-22, 2001) - Crimea, Ukraine

Group photo with the Rector of the Simferopol Affiliate of the Odesa Police Academy

Five trainers from Greenfield and Milwaukee County, WI traveled to Crimea in September to continue the healthy interaction that had begun in the spring. Based on their observations during Phase I and on the recommendations of their agencies, the Crimean hosts proposed training topics for the two-week Phase II training program. The program was a mix of roundtable discussions, presentations, seminars, site visits and cultural activities. The focus of the sessions included such topics as Philosophy of Community Policing, In-School Crime Prevention, Police-Community Collaboration, Police-Media Relations, Domestic Violence Response, Ethics in Law Enforcement, Standards of Recruiting and Training, and Community and Traffic Safety.

Phase III (March 29 - April 13, 2002) - Greenfield, Wisconsin

Group photo with the American Legion

Exactly one year after Phase I, four delegates from Crimea and Kyiv traveled to Milwaukee County for the Phase III Professional Development Workshop. Through interactive training seminars, ride-alongs, job shadowing and practical demonstrations set up by Chief Francis Springob of the Greenfield Police Department in conjunction with Project Harmony, three representatives of Ukraine's law-enforcement community and one representative of Ukraine's Crimean Department of Education learned how community-oriented policing strategies can be used to fight drugs, prevent crime in the community, and support at-risk youth.

Due to the commitment and professionalism of both the Ukrainian and US partners, Project Harmony completed three valuable exchanges between Milwaukee County and Crimea, Ukraine. While the US trainers had the expectation that they would be the teachers, the reality was that they learned a great deal more about policing from their Ukrainian colleagues than they could have ever imagined. Project Harmony hopes to continue its collaboration with the Greenfield Police Department and the Crimean Law Institute for future law-enforcement initiatives.