GHAZNI PROVINCE, Afghanistan – An important part of establishing a security force within Afghanistan is providing a face to the government for the Afghan people. The Gelan district is using the Afghan Uniformed Police to be the face of security in the area.
The AUP are now the main police force within the Gelan district, and their primary purpose is law and order - enforcing the rule of law and providing a local level of law enforcement.
“They are in charge of check points and law enforcement, and in the cities they do traffic enforcement,” said Task Force Ghazni’s assistant operations officer. “Essentially they tie in with the leadership in the area to help provide government law and order instead of just tribal law.”
The recruitment process for AUP is similar to other security forces. Local shops and stores often display signs designed to recruit Afghan men for the AUP. In addition, there are local recruiters who assist with the process.
“They put in their application and they’re vetted by the Afghan government,” said the operations officer. “Once they finish the vetting process, they’ll go to the academy and go through a training iteration where they learn basic rule of law, how to be a cop, weapons and basic police tactics. From there, they get sent out to wherever they are going to be working.”
The AUP often works alongside other Afghan National Security Forces which are also part of the police program. It’s not uncommon to see AUP working with the Afghan Border Police at various checkpoints between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“If something gets past the ABP, they will tell the AUP and they do a hand-off with that target or of the interdiction, and vice versa,” added the operations officer.
The AUP are often a first line of defense in preventing local crime and preventing insurgents from infiltrating villages in the Gelan district. Seeing AUP shows the villagers at least one indicator that their country has a functioning government. With a reliable point of security, they don’t need to look to the insurgents for law, but rather they can rely on their own government.
“The AUP is critical because it can provide that stability in day to day life, so people [can] reject the insurgents,” said the operations officer.
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