Iraqi Police Retrained as Security Challenges Persist, Corruption Taints Force

ANCN NUMANIYA, Iraq, Oct. 23, 2006 — -- In the streets of Basra, Iraq, the country's oil-rich southern capital, a British army unit known as "the Poachers" combats the insurgency by setting up snap vehicle checkpoints to look for bomb-making materials, mortars and rockets.

The soldiers, in full body armor and helmets, pull over cars randomly. But in a surprising move we saw two Iraqi police vehicles pulled over and searched.

"Can we have a look in the boot?" asked Lance Cpl. Kris Moore. The 23-year-old was looking for firearms, as many of the British troops here in the south don't trust the local police.

"They are quite corrupt," More said. "Some of the police stations are corrupt."

And it's not just in Basra. Coalition officials admit that militias have infiltrated many of the local police across the country, and the vast majority of the 188,000 man force is not up to the job it is supposed to be carrying out.

Earlier this month, the Iraqi Interior Minister took the dramatic step of standing down an entire national police brigade. Members of the 8th Brigade are suspected of assisting, or turning a blind eye to militiamen who entered a meat-packing plant and kidnapped more than 20 workers.

This news came just days after U.S. forces started retraining the entire national police force.

The national police force, which makes up 10 percent of the overall Iraqi police, has been in the field for more than a year. The 20,000 men are now undergoing three weeks of training and will be issued new uniforms that will be difficult to counterfeit, and will then be put back on the streets.

Military officials say the Iraqi police are key to bringing security to the country, and have dubbed 2006 the Year of the Police.

But nearly 10 months into the effort, senior military leaders concede that only 70 percent of the police are "partially capable" of carrying out planning and operations on their own. And that's after the military has embedded 1,000 soldiers and contractors with Iraqi police units across the country.