Photo By Staff Sgt. Shannon Crane | Wearing new uniforms, members of the Iraqi National Police Quick Reaction Force in...... read more read more
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by Sgt. Shannon Crane
CENTCOM Public Affairs
BAGHDAD - Building a plane in flight. It is an analogy commonly used when describing the need to fly, but lacking the necessary time to draft and build a vehicle prior to departure. This analogy can be applied to the construction of Iraq's National Police force.
The "vehicle" being built is a credible national police force. The "need to fly" is the utilization of these forces to secure Baghdad against insurgents, sectarian violence and basic criminal activity. And when turbulence occurs - in this case, the internal strife caused by recurring leadership changes, accusations of militia infiltration and a negative public image – it is the role of the National Police Transition Teams (NPTTs) to help the Iraqis stay on course, providing the stability and guidance needed for the force's success.
Working side by side with the NP, the NPTTs offer a mix of combat and support specialties - to include operations, intelligence, logistics, communications, engineering and security – to assist the Iraqis to assume full responsibility for the security of their country. "Our teams are normally 11-15 man teams that work from the battalion, brigade, and division," said U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Rock Shiffer, the senior non-commissioned officer advisor for the Iraqi National Police Headquarters in Baghdad.
"We coach, teach, mentor, and advise the different organizations on how to develop their police forces," he said. Shiffer explained after military transition teams were assembled to help train the Iraqi Army, it was soon discovered Iraq needed to do the same thing with their police. "So we're training them, equipping them, advising them, and hopefully, we'll get them more in a police-type role down the road," he added.
In 2003, Iraq had a dilapidated internal security force. Today, the Ministry of Interior has generated more than 180,000 trained and equipped police. Of those, more than 24,000 are assigned to the National Police force. "If you view the National Police kind of as a stop gap between the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Police, that's kind of where they fall," said U.S. Army Col. Damon Penn, 2nd National Police Division transition team chief.
"It is a paramilitary organization that was originally designed as an idea of the Iraqi government," he said, "to bridge that gap and to provide some type of capability for the Ministry of Interior to project security throughout the provinces in Iraq." There are currently 12 police training academies including eight basic police academies that instruct the 10-week basic training course, which is designed to better prepare the police for the challenging environment in which many will serve.
"Law enforcement agencies have to know about law," Shiffer said. "With a new government, many of the laws are old laws, or they're pre-existing laws, and many of these people don't know about the laws, or much less how to enforce them. "So a lot of that training is important, and in the future, in creating this force, having them very proficient at the law and knowing when to apply the law in various different situations, that's going to make the difference in this being a true law enforcement organization."
Such an organization, functioning as a work-in-progress, is bound to encounter challenging times. Penn explained one of the biggest challenges involves managing the expectations of what the NP are really capable of doing, and what the Ministry of Interior wants this force to look like. "We haven't had a real clear blueprint of where the Ministries wanted to go," he said, "because, as you know, we had the interim government. And the government, at this point is about a hundred and twenty days old, so they are still working on what they want the end state of the National Police to be.
"So if I had to do an analogy, it'd be the whole 'building the airplane in flight' analogy. We're still trying to decide what we want it to be. At the same time, we're training and have it out on the ground doing other missions. So that's been a challenge." Another challenge Penn described dealt with the Iraqi people's perception of the National Police based on past operations outside of Baghdad, where kinetic operations were a necessity in fighting insurgents.
"They've got a very poor reputation," said Penn, "and a lot of that stems back from some early operations that they did, and, in particular, as they tried to transition their operation from Fallujah and Mosul – which at those particular times, really had no coherent government or anything to work with...strictly kinetic operations of fighting insurgents – to coming into Baghdad, which has a more established governmental system.
"And trying to do those same types of operations in Baghdad created some problems for them. So they started out with a really bad reputation. And we've worked hard to make that better, and they've worked very hard at it, too." Still, other challenges stem from the differences in the Iraqi and American cultures. Both Penn and Shiffer stressed the importance of cultural awareness in conducting business with their Iraqi counterparts.
"I can't over-emphasize how important it is," said Penn, "because we bring a different set of values, we bring a different set of experiences to the region. Iraq's been in existence for over two thousand years, and the culture here is very set, and the people are very proud of their heritage." Shiffer said it is vital to talk with the Iraqi people, to learn their culture and discover what's important to them in order to establish a good working relationship.
"You've got to be able to get to know them," said Shiffer, "because their culture is, 'Come on in. Have a seat. Let's sit and talk. Let's have some tea.' And then after a little bit of the getting to know one another and whatnot, then you can start getting down to some business. "And if you try and rush through that, you're going to offend them, so we don't want to do that."
Regardless of the many obstacles, the Iraqi National Police force continues to grow and progress with the help of the NPTTs. "I think we have made progress," said Penn. "I think the National Police, as an organization, are better off than they were when we got here about eight months ago, and I think my predecessors made it better than it was the year prior when they got here."
Shiffer commented on the improvement he has seen in the development of the leaders within the force, and in their ability to support their organization and lead their people. "I've seen the leaders start off with not knowing a whole lot about our form of leadership, or a different form of leadership, step into those roles and start leading their people and supplying their people, supporting their people," he said.
But, according to Shiffer, growth is a process...and a slow one, at that, where change doesn't happen instantly. "We'd all like it to happen quickly," he said. "We want them to take over as much as they can as quickly as they can, but we have a certain level of proficiency that we expect them to be at so that they can be capable and they don't need our help anymore.
"And once they've reached those levels, then they can take over and we can stand back and let them operate the way that they need to." Penn agreed, and explained there are still details that need to be worked within the National Police force before an end state can be reached.
"I think we're moving forward," Penn said. We'll never go as quickly as everybody would want us to. We would all like to come and think that overnight, we'll make a big difference and that Iraq will change. But it takes some time. "They've still got some problems to work through. They've still got some internal changes that the Minister has to make in some of the leadership. They've got some tough decisions for the Minister and the Prime Minister to make in order for the government to work."
| Date Taken: | 10.10.2006 |
| Date Posted: | 10.31.2006 08:25 |
| Story ID: | 8189 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 1,428 |
| Downloads: | 1,152 |
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