December 2, 2011

Bob Perito, director of USIP’s Security Sector Governance Center of Innovation, discusses the value of police assistance programs in conflict affected countries – and the importance police can play in counter-insurgency operations.
 

What role should local police play in counter-insurgency operations like those in Iraq and Afghanistan?

In the formula for successful counter-insurgency operations—clear, hold and build—local police play a critical role. After U.S. and host country military forces have cleared an area of insurgents, the local police return and participate with the military in holding the area and preventing the insurgents’ return. In the “Build” phase, however, the efforts of the local police pay real dividends. In all countries, the police are the face of the government to the average citizen. Police perform such basic government services as citizen protection, crime prevention, dispute resolution, emergency response and traffic regulation. If local police are properly trained to perform these roles, they can win the allegiance of citizens for their government and secure their cooperation in the struggle against the insurgency.
 

Are U.S. programs to train local police to perform those roles important and worth the expenditure of scarce U.S resources?

Like U.S. programs for training local military forces, programs for training, equipping and deploying local police are an essential part of the exit strategy for U.S. military forces from states in conflict. It is important that these programs include efforts to develop the supervisory institutions—the ministries of defense and interior—as well as the operational security forces. These assistance programs require funding, but the costs of creating local forces are far less than the cost of deploying U.S. forces. The quicker host country security forces become effective, the sooner U.S. military forces can depart. However, U.S. assistance programs must produce local police forces that are fiscally sustainable and that have the skills to provide peacetime law enforcement and community-based police services.
 

As we near the end of the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, what lessons can we learn from the U.S. experience with training the Iraqi police that can be applied to the U.S. police assistance program in Afghanistan where the U.S. will begin a transition in 2014?

As violence declines and the U.S. military withdraws from Iraq, the country faces the task of transforming its 400,000 member, militarized police force into a right-sized, law enforcement and policing service. The U.S. has offered to assist with this process, but Congress has expressed skepticism concerning the cost (perhaps as much as $1 billion for 195 advisors) and the prospects for success given the ratio between the number of proposed advisors and the size of the Iraq force. The lesson for the 2014 U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan would be to begin the process of right- sizing and retraining the 175,000 member Afghan National Police (ANP) force early enough to provide for a force that is fiscally sustainable and trained to provide civilian police functions. Like its counterpart in Iraq, the ANP has been trained and equipped to combat the insurgency. The U.S. needs to begin the process of transforming that force so it will be prepared to operate as a civilian, law enforcement service in the future.

Explore Further

• Security Sector Governance
  USIP Center of Innovation
• Learn more about USIP's work in Afghanistan and Iraq