Police training continues in Kunduz

KUNDUZ, AFGHANISTAN

10.02.2010

Story by Pfc. Cynthia Teears Van Cleve 

1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan - Afghan National Police and members of the International Security Assistance Force continued their law enforcement training at the 2nd Precinct ANP in Kunduz, Afghanistan, Oct. 2.

Soldiers of 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, from the 10th Mountain Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team work with a Law Enforcement Professional, or LEP from Military Professional Resources Incorporation, and participated in law enforcement training with the members of the ANP.

Dave Goodman, a LEP instructor, has been coming to the 2nd Precinct, and teaching his law enforcement classes with Sgt. 1st Class Alexander Arce, a military police officer assigned to Headquarters Company, 1-87, since the beginning of September.

"We're going to start today by finishing what we talked about when we were talking about searching at the checkpoints," Goodman said to the class. "There was four types of searches we discussed. Can anyone tell me one?"

Some of the Afghan policemen responded with discussion, which lead to Goodman wanting to clarify and review.

"We talked about four different types of searches," Goodman told the group. "We talked about visual. We talked about verbal – you can do a combination of visual and verbal. We talked about a pat down search and an intrusive search – when you are arresting someone."

Discussion is encouraged during the class as long as everyone is included.

"Why are we police officers?" Goodman asked and paused before answering. "To make this country a safer place for our families."

Many times during this class Goodman covered ANP current policies, reviewing and seeing how many policeman knew the policies already.

"Your ANP policy says you can cuff in three different instances," Goodman said. "What are they?"

"Current policy, when you see someone doing something wrong," Afghan policeman said.

That is when an arrest can be made, explained Goodman.

Then Goodman asked why does a policeman put handcuffs on someone in custody?

"To keep them from hurting us or hurting themselves or hurting others," Goodman said.

Goodman went over the different occasions when handcuffs where advised to be used.

"You could handcuff somebody because you are transporting somebody too, especially going long distances," Goodman said.

One of member of the ANP mentioned escape prevention.

"That's the third reason – to prevent escape," Goodman affirmed.

The policy classroom review continued to include when not to handcuff a person that is in police custody.

"By your policy there's a couple of reasons you're not supposed to handcuff," said Goodman.

"You cannot handcuff someone for personal reasons," an Afghan policeman said.

Goodman agreed and explained the policy talks about situations when the person that is in police custody has physical limitations.

"You can't handcuff them if they are incapacitated," said Goodman. "You have to determine what the definition of incapacitation is though."

Goodman explained that they should be able to explain why they considered someone in their custody incapacitated or not incapacitated depending on whether or not they decided to handcuff the subject.

"The second reason that's in your policy is if the person is in the advanced stages of pregnancy, but hopefully you won't have to take a whole lot of pregnant women into custody," Goodman said.

The next section of the class was more hands-on training, with the ANP demonstrating techniques they already knew and the instructors showing them options they could use depending on what was available to them.

The Afghan police were shown different handcuffing techniques and practiced with some of the soldiers acting as a suspect being placed in custody.

Make sure the keyholes are facing up for safety purposes and so it is easier to unlock them, was the determination of one discussion.

When handcuffing a large person or someone that may fight it is the policeman's job to determine an approach to ensure safety, said Goodman.

There are three different positions to handcuff, from standing, kneeling and prone, Arce said. There are different ways to approach the person to be place in custody and precautions must be made to prevent injury and ensure the ease of the process giving the person lack of opportunity to fight.

Once a person has the handcuffs on their safety is the responsibility of the policeman who has them in custody, Goodman said. So it is the officer’s responsibility to make sure their blood circulation doesn't get cut off and they do not get further injured while they are in custody.

"After you cuff somebody you make sure to double lock the handcuffs," an Afghan policeman said.

The Afghan policemen continued to discuss what they learned and talked to some of the soldiers before they left for the day.

"We learned three kinds of handcuffing, prone position, kneeling position and standing," said ANP 2nd Lt. Hazratullah, from the 2nd Precinct. "Whenever you are facing a big criminal we learned how to get them, but if they're armed we should be two to one. If the criminal is not armed and you think you can get him easily, you may be able to handcuff by yourself."

Most of the soldiers have worked with the precinct for the past three months. There was work to be done from the beginning, but many improvements have been noticed.

"I've seen them observe how we search people," Spc. Alex Finnegan, a team leader with the platoon. "When we are watching them they make it more of a coalition effort. We're trying to get them to be honest cops and still do their job when we're not there."

Another technique discussed in the law enforcement classes was community policing and making friends with the community as a policeman.

"I did observe an ANP buy a whole bunch of children ice cream," Finnegan said. "It's having a good relationship with your community. I've never seen them care about the kids before."

Progress may be slower in some areas of training than others. Each precinct has their strengths and weaknesses. The job is to capitalize on the strengths and make sure the weaknesses are being strengthened.

• Date Taken: 10.02.2010
• Date Posted: 10.15.2010 13:19
• Story ID: 58192
• Location: KUNDUZ, AF