Photo By Sgt. Daniel Blottenberger | Master Sgt. Kevin Emory (left), a native of Clinton, S.C., who serves with the 95th...... read more read more
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By Sgt. Daniel Blottenberger
18th Military Police Brigade
BAGHDAD – In January 2008, Multi-National Division – Baghdad's 18th Military Police Brigade developed a new method to further improve the surging Iraqi police force by implementing the enhanced Police Transition Teams to concentrate on supporting IP systems in Baghdad.
The ePTT is a group of Soldiers who have subject matter expertise in: personnel, communications and logistic operations and techniques in support of large organizations; their mission is to assess the IP organization and provide assistance to better the organizational management of the IPs in these areas.
Since then, the ePTTs have been embedding with the IP force at the directorate and provincial levels to help improve the IP systems management process.
"The IP leadership is taking advice from the ePTTs and taking responsibility for their stations while feeling more comfortable working with the recommendations made by the ePTT subject matter experts, who are improving the IP systems in Baghdad," said Lt. Col. Thomas Lombardo, operations officer, 18th MP Bde., a native of Buffalo, N.Y., during a recent assessment visit of the police transition teams in Baghdad.
At the directorate level in Rusafa, a two Soldier team from the 95th Military Police Battalion conducts daily ePTT operations with their IP counterparts to further improve the IP systems in the east Baghdad directorate.
Capt. Shannon Nowak and Master Sgt. Kevin Emory conduct ePTT operations at the Rusafa Directorate Headquarters, which oversees 8,500 IP distributed to 32 stations in five districts on the east side of Baghdad.
"This is the first time, at the directorate level, ever that an ePTT has been more or less embedded with the IP," said Nowak, a native of Silver Lake, Minn.
Prior to January, the coalition forces and International Police Advisors, who are civilian law enforcement officers from the United States, hired by DynCorp, were both working on IP systems, but the partner trainers were not combining their efforts.
Under the new ePTT, the two organizations are now working together to improve the IP systems.
The ePTT at the Rusafa directorate level consists of Nowak, Emory and with ten IPA and ten interpreters. The team works together to provide the IP commanders with advice on how to make their systems more efficient in order to support the stations within their commands.
"Guidance is given from the officer in charge or the non-commissioned officer in charge and each IPA is the subject-matter expert. They have their specialty area they work and deal with daily issues, concerns and give suggestions to their IP counterparts in order to improve the IP systems," said Nowak, in explaining the ePTT concept at the directorate level.
Several areas the team was working on during this particular week were fuel consumption, distribution and accountability in several facets.
"We are trying to get a handle on the fuel corruption, issuing out of supplies and equipment, payroll issues, training new and previous IP and investigation techniques," said Nowak.
Besides these specific areas, the main job of the ePTT is to partner side by side with the IP as they perform their daily jobs and provide assistance to improve the IP systems capabilities.
"The team is at the directorate almost daily, working right alongside the IP to improve their systems," said Nowak.
In contrast to the standard Police Transition Team, the PTT at the station levels around Baghdad are run by military police Soldiers. Their roles are to train the Iraqi police and teach them how to conduct community policing in the areas they are assigned. Recently however, they have found themselves having to adapt to a new role outside their normal job descriptions to help their IP counterparts with their systems a the station level to help compliment the support structures between the higher and lower echelons of the IP organization.
"I never knew when I joined the Army as an MP I would be doing this," said Emory, while discussing fuel operations tracking with the Rusafa Directorate Maintenance Facility commander, Aug. 7, 2008.
Even though this is outside their primary skill sets, U.S. Soldiers, when conducting their missions and advancing in their career fields, are exposed to a variety of skills sets that they develop an expertise in. Emory and his counterparts have adapted in order to complete their mission of providing guidance to their IP counterparts. And if they are not completely sure on a particular task, they are able to utilize their chain of command to find an expert to pull resources and expertise from.
"Working with the IP has been like working in the operations cell of a new company," said Emory. "You get to know the mission and the systems used within the organization and then work towards maintaining or improving the systems."
Also since January, the Directorate ePTT has overseen the development of an Emergency Response Unit in the Rusafa Directorate, which consists of three battalion-sized elements consisting of approximately 750 IP each in the Zohour, Mada'in and Bab al Shiekh Districts in the Rusafa directorate.
The ePTT has seen a lot of challenges in working with the IP, but the IP have overcome all of those challenges.
"There have been a lot of challenges since we started, but we have worked together with the IP to adapt and overcome these challenges," said Emory, adding that one of the complications the IP are experiencing is the task of delegating authority to their subordinate leaders while at the same time not negating their chain of command.
"The biggest issue we're having is for the top leadership in the IP force to give authority to his guys below him to make any decisions or have any authority in the commanders absence," said Nowak.
Despite the challenges the ePTT face, the Soldiers are out there every day working with the IP at the directorate level to further improve the force in order for the IP to provide rule of law to the Iraqi people in Baghdad.
The ePTT continues to develop a push/pull type of functional system. For example, when subordinates need resources, they can work the system through the chain while at the same time, the higher level assists the lower in getting the resources to do their jobs.
"Improvement in the IP at the directorate level has definitely been transforming over the past eight months," said Nowak. "It's a slow-slow process, but we are helping in improving their systems."
| Date Taken: | 08.16.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 08.16.2008 11:14 |
| Story ID: | 22570 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 316 |
| Downloads: | 255 |
This work, MND-B ePTT assists, develops IP systems, by SGT Daniel Blottenberger, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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