To serve and protect: New academy helps Diyala IPs meet training requirements

BAQUBAH, IRAQ

04.26.2008

Story by Spc. Kirby Rider 

4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division

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By Kirby Rider
4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division

BAQUBAH, Iraq – As the situation in Diyala continues to improve, the mission is changing from clearing the province of al-Qaida in Iraq, to ensuring it remains secure and free of criminal elements. The improved security has allowed the Iraqi police to focus on other issues. One of the larger issues the force is addressing is the training of newly hired policemen that have not received the schooling required by the Ministry of Interior.

The solution to this training issue is a temporary academy that recently opened on Forward Operating Base Grizzly, near Ashraf, Iraq.

The Multi-National Division–North Regional Training Center, or Al A'athaiem Academy as it is known by the Iraqi police, was built to help fix the backlog of IPs who have not undergone official training. Coalition forces and Iraqi security forces are working to build a permanent academy in the town of Muradiyah, located between Baqubah and Khan Bani Sa'ad.

Once the base is completed, the new academy will be Iraqi operated with minimal CF oversight, said Col. Ali, Diyala IP training officer, through an interpreter.

"Right now Diyala has about 17,000 Iraqi Policemen and only a third of those have received training," said Maj. Thomas Rider, provost marshall for 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, Wash., the unit responsible for Diyala province. "In large part it is because Diyala did not have its own training academy."

The roughly 6,000 policemen who have already completed a course either at the Sulaymaniya Police Academy in northern Iraq, or have gone through the Theater Integrated Police Program – where policemen receive on the job training – can attend a condensed training course to be certified.

"Unfortunately Diyala can not send everyone to Sulaymaniya because there are just not enough slots, and TIPPs only gets us about 200 Soldiers per cycle," Rider said.

The academy started its first class on April 14, and there are currently more than 400 new policemen enrolled. Twenty police officers from Diyala province and U.S. government contractors with extensive experience in law enforcement are conducting the training.

The standard MoI course is eight weeks long, but in order to combat the backlog, the course has been shortened to four weeks.

"The hours per day have been lengthened so the amount of time spent in class is the same," Rider said.

The students at the academy start their day at sunrise with physical training so the new IPs learn how to keep their bodies strong, which will help them when they get to their assigned districts. After PT, the recruits participate in an hour of military training, including drill and ceremony and hand-to-hand combat before going to breakfast and starting that day's class.

The training schedules for the students at Al-A'athaiem change from day to day . On one day, job specific training is taught that helps prepare the policemen for their roles in the police force after they leave the academy. The alternate days consist of basic military training that teach vital skills like maintenance and marksmanship with their AK-47 assault rifles, Glock 9mm pistols and PKC rifles.

Along with marksmanship training, the IPs also receive lessons on the Iraqi law they will enforce, police code of ethics and proper detainee procedures.

"The training that I have received (at the academy) will really help me and my platoon when we graduate and go back to our districts," said Saddam Jihad Mohammad, Diyala Emergency Brigade policeman, through an interpreter. "When I go back, I am going to teach these lessons to others, so they know what to expect when they get here."

Students at the academy live in tents, like the ones U.S. Soldiers use on their forward operating bases, and eat three hot meals per day. Since the weather has warmed up, the day's classes are taught under shade canopies to prevent the students from getting dehydrated.

"When I came to the academy I didn't know what to expect," Mohammad said. "The conditions here are a lot nicer than what I thought they would be."

Students and instructors alike spoke of the work needed to make the academy better and what will be needed of the police force once coalition forces leave the country.

"The academy is a great first step to train the policemen in Diyala," Ali said. "This training will help strengthen our police force for the long road ahead of us."