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08 November 2003

Coalition Continues to Train New Police for Iraq

Police are key element in transfer of responsibilities to Iraqis

Washington -- U.S. and coalition forces are continuing to recruit and train new members of the police force in Iraq, according to Central Command (Centcom) and U.S. military sources.

The Iraqi Police Service of Ar Ramadi graduated its first class of 45 students on November 6, Centcom said. Along with classes in self defense and marksmanship, they received training in human rights, rule of law, techniques of community policing, and provisions of the Iraqi Code of 1969. The instructors were military police assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division.

The Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority and the U.S. military spent more than $500,000 through local contractors to refurbish the college classrooms and dormitories used by the recruits, according to Centcom.

In northern Iraq, the U.S. Army News Service reported that the latest group of 171 police trainees graduated from the Tal Afar Police Academy on November 3.

Troops from the 101st Airborne Division helped teach classes in police procedures, weapons use, riot control, physical fitness, and human rights, according to the U.S. Army.

"This is an important day for your families, your towns and Iraq as a whole," said battalion commander, Lt. Colonel Christopher Pease, at the graduation ceremony for the new police recruits at Tal Afar. "You selected men are now at the forefront of a new endeavor."

There are now more than 100,000 Iraqis working as soldiers, police officers, security and civil defense personnel, with plans to double that number in the next year, according to U.S. and coalition officials.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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