Improving Afghan police, one district at a time

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN

03.22.2008

Story by Petty Officer 1st Class David Votroubek 

NATO Training Mission Afghanistan

By Petty Officer 1st Class David M. Votroubek
Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan Public Affairs

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – "Taliban! Taliban!" the instructor shouted. Instantly, two dozen Afghan national policemen dropped into defensive positions and pretended to shoot at an imaginary enemy. To a few of them it seemed funny, because they'd done it for real.

Why send the police back to training? Last year the Afghan Ministry of Interior addressed the fact that many ANP officers have never been formally trained, and it was causing them problems. Poor equipment, lack of facilities and corruption only added to their inability to serve and protect the public.

So the ministry, along with the U.S. State Department and Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, devised "Focused District Development" a strategy to reform policing in Afghanistan, district by district.

Each of the police districts in Afghanistan was assessed and prioritized by the MoI to see which ones would be trained first. The first cycle graduated Feb. 21, and this group from Zhari district is part of cycle two. It will take about five years to train more than 350 districts.

During FDD, the police are taken from their district as a group, are trained, in some cases re-trained, re-equipped and then returned. While the police are training at the Regional Training Center, they are temporarily replaced by Afghan national civil order police.

The training courses were developed jointly by CSTC-A and DynCorps, which is a security contractor for the U.S. State Dept. The topics include general police duties, weapons proficiency, conducting searches, tactical movement and building clearance, unarmed combat, first aid, human rights, community policing and Afghan law.

DynCorps instructors with police experience handle the law enforcement training, while U.S. Soldiers do the combat training and MoI instructors teach the Afghan customs, laws and constitution. The instructors have some latitude in what they teach, and they share information with each other to improve the curriculum.

One of the combat instructors at Kandahar's RTC is Army Sgt. Ryan Quinn. He teaches some of the infantry skills they need to fight against heavily-armed insurgents and thinks that hands-on training works the best. Quinn also says that having the district police leaders in class helps those leaders and reduces discipline problems.

The Afghans like to be kept busy, which is just as well, since Quinn only has six days to teach them. Training at RTC only lasts eight weeks, and one of those is for administrative tasks like setting up the policemen's pay accounts and issuing them their new ID cards.

Rookie policeman Said Jawid of Uruzgan is anxious to practice what he's already learned when he gets back to the district. His experiences have proven to him that the training won't just improve his policing skills, but it could also save his life.

When these officers return to Zhari, their police mentoring team will go with them to continue training and assisting them. The feedback has been positive from the PMT's whose districts have already been trained.

"The Afghan government gave them the authority," said Army Capt. Curtiss Robinson of the Shahjoy District PMT. He added, "The U.S. military gave them the skill."

• Date Taken: 03.22.2008
• Date Posted: 03.24.2008 17:01
• Story ID: 17697
• Location: KANDAHAR, AF