First FDD graduates hit the road - and go beyond it

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

NOWRAK, Afghanistan – The landscape in Zabul Province reminds some Americans of a scene from a western movie. So did Afghan law enforcement when Army Capt. Curtiss Robinson and his police mentoring team rode into Shahjoy District.

Robinson called the police force there a "posse" because they had enthusiasm but no formal police training. There were no police advisors in Shahjoy before his team got there in July 2007, so the first step was to create a training plan for the police.

Robinson is an Army logistics officer with civilian law enforcement experience in South Carolina. Others on his team also had police experience, so they used it and their military training to teach the Afghans some fundamental policing skills.

The next step came from Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior. In late 2007, the MoI implemented a new strategy called Focused District Development to reform the Afghan National Police, while improving local governance, public works and the rule of law.

Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, with the MoI and the international community developed a plan to take all the police out of their community, retrain and re-equip them at one of the Regional Training Centers, and send them back to their district.

Then the MoI and CSTC- A selected seven of the most challenging police districts for the first training cycle. Three of them, including Shahjoy, were from Zabul Province.

Shahjoy's police conducted their training at the RTC in Jalalabad. During the eight-week course they were instructed on the general police duties, weapons, building clearance, first aid, human rights and Afghan law and culture.

After graduating, the police returned to their district and the PMT advisors began the next phase of FDD – sustainment training and advising. According to Robinson, now that they've been trained what to do; they need to practice how to do it.

They will have to improve their skills quickly. After the police returned to Shahjoy, Taliban insurgents also began returning to the area.

The commander of Nowrak patrol base, Lt. Fazal Rahman, took his men on a and found a prepared fighting position with four rocket-propelled grenades for attacking passing trucks. It was only 25 meters from Highway One.

Army Capt. Dave Perry leads the Shahjoy District police mentoring team and has developed a patrol plan for the police officers. Rather than have them wait for trouble on the road, he wants them to patrol the nearby villages, where most of the security threats originate.

"Policing before was static," explained Perry. "We're getting them out in the community to show the people some government representation; so they know the police are there to help."

The next day, Rahman's men patrolled Nowrak village and Perry accompanied them through the village to introduce them to the village elders. The locals provide information, according to Perry, and helping them is the heart of "community-based policing."

The police in Shahjoy don't resemble a "posse" like they once did, and maybe having a professional police force will make the district seem less like the Wild West. Police Chief Mohammed Rasool says that someday the police in Shahjoy won't even carry guns, just a nightstick.

• Date Taken: 03.22.2008
• Date Posted: 03.25.2008 08:28
• Story ID: 17702
• Location: AF