New course offers ANP executives advanced training

Photo By Staff Sgt. Terri Barriere | Lt. Col. Zakia Esmatullah, Executive Law Enforcement Training Program graduate, accepts her graduation certificate from Maj. Gen. Ghafar Sayed Zada, Criminal Investigations Division director, Feb. 18. During the 30 day course, the students received brief lessons on intelligence led policing, domestic violence, the rule of law, counter narcotics, evidence handling, crime scene investigating, report writing and interviewing, case building and human trafficking.  

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

02.17.2012

Story by Staff Sgt. Terri Barriere 

NATO Training Mission Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — “Graduation is not the end, it is the beginning … training continues out in the field,” Inspector Frederic Jouhandeaux, European police deputy senior mentor for anti-crime, told the room full of graduates during the commencement ceremony for the first Executive Law Enforcement Training Program Feb. 18.

According to Steven Babcock, program manager, the ELETP was designed to bring mid and senior grade Afghan National Police officers to a common knowledge level as part of their continued professionalization.

During the 30 day program, the attendees were exposed to a number of law enforcement courses, taught in brief segments, to educate the executives on courses available to them and their subordinates in the future.

“This is more of an awareness course in advanced law enforcement,” said Steven Babcock, program training manager. “These were all mid to senior level executives that have all had basic police training but we consolidated the advanced courses to make it as easy as possible for them to get the training they need.”

While in the class, the students received lessons on intelligence led policing, domestic violence, the rule of law, counter narcotics, evidence handling, crime scene investigating, report writing and interviewing, case building and human trafficking.

Though most of the courses are typically available, Babcock said the unique thing about ELETP is that it brings the training to the students versus bringing the students to the training.

The training was held from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Thursday in a classroom at the MOI compound where each of the students work.

“These are professional police officers giving training to fellow officers basically in their own offices,” Babcock said. “Providing training doesn’t have to be difficult; it can be easy and hassle free such as this. The students didn’t have to travel out of town, be away from work, be away from their families … this way, they get the training with no disruption to their lives. It’s more enjoyable that way.”

Though not all of the information was new for the students, the class offered a new perspective on familiar topics.

“I learned how to use the information I already had in my daily duties,” said Lt. Col. Zakia Esmatullah, ELETP graduate. “The class taught us how to be more successful and offered a lot of good examples in a more practical way. This was more advanced than any training I’ve had before, but I liked that it taught us more about how to implement the training we received. It was a very positive experience.”

Now that the pilot course is complete, Babcock said they will run one class per quarter until all the executives at the MOI have been trained. The program will then be relocated to the provinces.

“The goal is for this to eventually become a distance learning course,” Babcock said. “We want to finish polishing the course and then videotape it so eventually we won’t have to bring a whole team out to conduct training. This is the way law enforcement training is done in other countries. Every officer goes through the academy, but in order to receive specialized training you either take a distance learning course or go back to the academy … we’re trying to bring that culture to Afghanistan.”

However, Babcock said, the need for training is immediate, and providing in-house training saves the time and money it would cost to build new facilities, which means more time, attention and resources can be devoted to improving the training and creating new courses.

Maj. Gen. Ghafar Sayed Zada, Criminal Investigations Division director and graduation guest speaker, emphasized the importance of the officers continuously seeking training throughout their career.

“Honesty, ethics and education are very important and it is your responsibility to pay attention and implement what you have learned here,” Ghafar said. “Mothers and fathers will not trust you to properly investigate crimes against their families if you don’t have those three things.”

• Date Taken: 02.17.2012
• Date Posted: 02.29.2012 08:17
• Story ID: 84477
• Location: KABUL, AF