DISPATCH Iraq

Story filed 1-30-05

By Edward Lee Pitts
Military Affairs

MANDILA, Iraq -- Soldiers with the 278th Regimental Combat Team are overcoming language and cultural barriers as they mentor new Iraqi police coming to grips with the power and responsibility of law enforcement.

"I don't know how to put it in a kind way, but they basically don't know what they are doing," said Spc. Darian Goodman, who has seven years with the Loudon, Tenn., Police Department where he is a field training officer. "I've thought about getting some 'COPs' DVDs and showing them the way we do it."

Soldiers said they are showing the Iraqi police procedures that most officers back home take for granted. Opportunities for teachable moments abound, soldiers said.

After Iraqi officers arrested a suspect who simply slipped out of the back of the police car and ran off, Spc. Matthew Shipp, of Knoxville, conducted an impromptu training session on the proper use of handcuffs.

"This is better than slapstick comedy," said Sgt. 1st Class Clay Rader, 44, of Loudon. "If they film the next 'Police Academy' movie here, it will be funnier than the others."

Jokes aside, the 278th soldiers agree the biggest problem is overcoming the itchy trigger fingers of the Iraqi police.

"Their culture is if they don't get their way, there is violence," said Sgt. Walter Scott King, 25, of Jefferson City, Tenn.

Earlier this month, one officer, allegedly firing at Iraqi soldiers who disproved of police using gunfire to control crowds at a gas station, accidentally shot another Iraqi police officer. U.S. forces evacuated the victim by air, but he died from his wounds, accor

ding to Lt. Joseph Minarick, 29, of Oak Ridge, Tenn. Regimental commander Col. Dennis Adams said the Iraqi police force suffers from a leadership deficit in the aftermath of the ongoing assassinations of law enforcement personnel by insurgents. He said government officials hope to fill this void through a recently established national police academy.

"Training and equipment will solve a lot of the problems," Col. Adams said. "They are learning a new system."

Spc. Mike Hoback, 32, who has spent a decade in law enforcement, including the last seven years as a Chattanooga police officer, said the Iraqi police fail to see any conflict of interest in letting friends cut in line at the gas stations or in accepting free food from shop owners.

"The main thing they teach you at the police academy is ethics," said Spc. Hoback, 32, who works with Iraqis in the city of Balad Ruz. "That is what is missing here. These guys are so used to having their doors kicked in, they can't comprehend that you just don't go busting into somebody's house."

Spc. Hoback said the police in Balad Ruz are learning the concept of crime prevention through less lethal procedures such as foot patrols in bad areas.

"They only respond when they get a call," he said. "They don't go out in the neighborhoods and walk around."

Several 278th soldiers said a lot of the Iraqi police officers don't leave their headquarters much because they don't feel safe. When one 278th platoon visited the Mandila police station and requested five police officers as backup for a mission, the Iraqi policemen had to be convinced to go on the raid.

Sgt. Rader said the Iraqi police also must stop depending too much on U.S. troops.

"We are trying to get them to quit telling other Iraqis, 'The Americans say do this,' and get them to say, 'The Iraqi police says do this,'" said Sgt. Rader.

But Spc. Hoback said the Iraqi police are trailblazers showing courage by even putting on their blue uniforms each day, despite death threats, to make their country better.

"These people have to go back into their neighborhoods wearing that armband, which is like a target," Spc. Hoback said, referring to the dark blue armbands the Iraqi police wear instead of a badge to signify their membership on the police force.

The Iraqi police also have difficulty understanding concepts such as the rule of law and constitutional rights, according to Spc. Goodman.

When the A platoon with Deacon Company last week checked on an Iraqi gun smuggler, they had arrested and handed over to the Iraqi police five days earlier, Lt. Minarick was surprised the police already had released the suspect.

Meanwhile, three Iranian sheepherders were still in the jail cells they had occupied for at least a month.

"That basically means they didn't have the money to bribe the border patrol to let them through," said Lt. Minarick, who had to provide the police with a box of military prepackaged meals, or MREs, to feed the prisoners.

While the prisoners ate, Lt. Minarick had to convince the police officers to hand over the machine gun taken from the released weapons smuggler. Officers wanted to use it for themselves, but Lt. Minarick had to explain the procedures and paperwork involved in using confiscated items.

Spc. Goodman has put together a syllabus to teach the Iraqis about such police procedures. He said he would start from scratch and treat all officers like raw recruits.

But the classes have been postponed until after today's elections, where the U.S. troops will be close by should something go wrong. The 197 police officers in the three towns located inside Deacon Company's sector near the Iranian border are working 24-hour shifts to keep up a heavy presence the final two weeks before today's election.

However, despite the classroom delay, the recent fatal shooting forced Spc. Goodman to announce to the Iraqi police that their days of warning shots are over.

"We will put them in jail," Spc. Goodman said. "What goes up must come down. If they fire a round they have to be responsible for that round."

E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com

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