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TARIN KOT, Afghanistan – Afghan National Police, operating in Uruzgan province, are gaining valuable skills from their friends in the Security Forces Advisory Team 12.
Operating out of Multinational Base Tarin Kot, the SFAT 12 works closely with key ANP leadership.
“Our primary mission is to mentor our Afghan partners in the provincial police headquarters here in the Uruzgan province in order to help them help themselves,” said Sgt. 1st. Class Kisean Huggins, 188th Infantry Brigade, Fort Stewart, Ga., and member of SFAT 12.
The mentor team has the difficult challenge of advising and teaching ANP Officers on how to become a sustainable police force.
“When coalition forces came to Afghanistan the big push was to professionalize the Afghan National Army, but they soon learned they also needed to push to professionalize the ANP,” said Lt. Col. Ceburn Gilliam, commander, SFAT 12.
“Originally the military has been training Afghan police officers the same way we train soldiers. Someone realized that was a bad idea and now we teach the ANP how to be police officers instead of soldiers,” Huggins said.
The Police and the Army operate in different ways, so the SFAT mentors the ANP on certain key elements.
“What we are trying to professionalize them in is what we call evidence based operations, which are your normal policing type operations,” Gilliam said.
Teaching them proper rule of law and police procedure is important.
In the past, their idea was to setup a checkpoint and let the checkpoint react to crimes, Huggins said.
Now the ANP has a better approach to their policing.
“Historically in the United States our police force was first established with the idea of beat-cops that know their community,” said Huggins. “We are now working on bringing that same principal to the ANP.”
The SFAT have not only brought new ideas and concepts, but also help with administration and logistical issues.
“We are mentoring them on anything from personnel and equipment management to fuel consumption and facilities management, so we cover the full spectrum of operations for them,” said Huggins.
This assistance has shown how it affects the ANP.
“Our team has [positively] impacted their confidence in coalition forces ability to assist them in the way ahead,” Huggins said.
As the effort to transition to a stable and self-sustaining Afghanistan continues, the SFAT 12 has high hopes for the future.
“Our ultimate goal is to have the ANP as a standalone force that holds the confidence of the community and can effectively manage their province without any outside intervention or assistance,” said Huggins. “We are doing several things: mentoring, training, teaching, all in the hopes that the Uruzgan province will benefit from our assistance.”
| Date Taken: | 07.16.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 07.18.2012 03:48 |
| Story ID: | 91723 |
| Location: | TARIN KOWT, AF |
| Hometown: | FORT STEWART, GA, US |
| Web Views: | 481 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Security Forces Advisory Team provide Afghan police with mentoring assistance, by SGT Nevada Jack Smith, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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