NEWS, SPORTS, COMMENTARY, POLITICS for Gloucester City and the Surrounding Areas of South Jersey and Philadelphia
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail"
By Petty
Officer 1st Class David M. Votroubek, USN
Special to American Forces Press
Service
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| NOWRAK, Afghanistan, March 24, 2008 - The landscape in Afghanistan's 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 the province's Shahjoy district.
Army Capt. Dave Perry and Afghan National
Police commander Sakhidad plan a security operation against insurgents in the
Shahjoy district of Afghanistan's Zabul province. Sakhidad commands police
officers at Hassan Karez patrol base in Shahjoy, which maintains security and
civil order along Highway One and all populated areas in the district. Perry
leads the district's police mentoring team, which is training the Afghan
officers to project their presence beyond the road into the nearby villages,
where most security threats originate. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class David M.
Votroubek, USN
(Click photo for screen-resolution
image);high-resolution image available.
| | Robinson
recalled that the police force there at the time was really nothing more than a
"posse," because they had enthusiasm but no formal police training.
There were no police advisors in Shahjoy before Robinson's team got
there in July, 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 Interior
Ministry, which implemented a new "focused district development" strategy late
last year to reform the Afghan National Police and improve local governance,
public works and the rule of law.
Combined Security Transition Command
Afghanistan, with the Interior Ministry and the international community,
developed a plan to take all the police out of their communities, retrain and
re-equip them at regional training centers, and send them back to their
districts.
Seven of the most challenging police districts were chosen
for the first training cycle. Three of them, including Shahjoy, were from Zabul
province.
During the eight-week course at the Jalalabad regional
training center, Shahjoy's police learned about general police duties, weapons,
building clearance, first aid, human rights and Afghan law and culture. After
graduating, the police returned to their district and police mentoring team
advisors began the next phase: sustainment training and advising. Now that
they've been trained what to do, Robinson explained, they need to practice how
to do it.
The Afghan police officers will have to improve their skills
quickly; after they 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 patrol and found a prepared fighting position with four
rocket-propelled grenades for attacking passing trucks. It was only 25 meters
from Highway One.
U.S. 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," he said. "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 local citizens provide information, Perry said, and helping them is the
heart of "community-based policing."
The police in Shahjoy no longer
resemble a "posse," and officials hope having a professional police force will
make the district seem less like the Wild West. Police Chief Mohammed Rasool
said that perhaps someday the police in Shahjoy will need to carry only
nightsticks – not guns.
(Navy Petty Officer 1st Class David M. Votroubek
serves with the Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan Public Affairs
Office.) | |
Related Sites: Related The Ultimate Sacrifice
Combined Security Transition Command
Afghanistan
Combined Joint Task Force 82
|
