The Politics of Policing

The army, meanwhile, would mostly like to absorb the NP and be done with it. Staff Maj. Gen. Mezhir Shaher, commander of the Army's 11th Division, has proposed "many times" that the NP merge with the Army. "Certainly they are doing good missions, but operationally they work as an army and often with the Army," he says. "The multiplicity of entities creates confusion. I think it's an additional layer that's not necessary." Shaher makes the comments as his friend, Staff Maj. Gen. Abdul Kharim al-Aizi, commander of the National Police's 1st Division, obligingly steps away. Aizi says a merger would be "all right," but his ideal structure calls for the army tending the nation's borders and external threats, the IPS looking after local crimes and the NP serving as a paramilitary force in charge of counterinsurgency, domestic disturbances, national disasters and the like. His model is Italy's Carabinieri, a hybrid that has been serving that country for many decades. Not coincidentally, the Italian agency has been training the National Police since October 2007, teaching its recruits the fundamentals of counterterrorism, crowd control and other skills. The Italians, whose services are provided through NATO, gladly back a knockoff of their system for Iraq. "The Carabinieri are a very important and effective example of the way a country can fight against crime and terrorism," says Italian Army spokeswoman Lt. Sonia Mancini. "Since Iraq is still having many security problems, a police intended as an organization between the regular police and the formal army could help the country become safer."

Having a competent National Police may be a good idea, but allowing it wide latitude in law enforcement could hamper development of IPS officers, the ones who have most often declined to stand and fight insurgents. Those lawmen serve in the municipalities were they were born and grew up and are more likely to succumb to pressure from militias who threaten to harm their families. A majority of the 1,300 security forces recently fired for refusing to fight in Basra and Baghdad were IPS. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, emphasized the problem earlier this year in testimony before U.S. senators. "The other lesson is a recurring one, and that is the difficulty of local police operating in areas where there is serious intimidation of themselves and of their families," he said. Beat cops are the forces that need to be nurtured, adds a senior U.S. adviser in Iraq. "The problem is that this country doesn't know where it wants to concentrate the use of force as it pertains to its own citizens," he says. 

Lt. Gen. James Dubik, head of the Multinational Security Transition Command, was one of the VIPs at the recent graduation of 450 NP officers from a Carabinieri course at the Iraqi training facility at Baghdad's Camp Victory. "The National Police had a reputation of being sectarian, of not being professional. But they didn't have a reputation for not fighting," he says. Awadi, the National Police commander, envisions his officers battling organized crime and drug smugglers and adding other duties as insurgents improvise new tactics. "As the disease develops, so does the medicine, the antidote," he says. The government will have to administer a strong dose of medicine internally: the Ministry of the Interior has dismissed more than 7,500 police officers so far this year. Absence, negligence and corruption were the main grounds cited for the firings, which removed 356 officers and 7,199 recruits. National Police commanders at the Tall Kayf recruitment drive might be encouraged that most registrants interviewed by NEWSWEEK cited patriotism and a desire to keep fellow Iraqis safe as their reasons for joining. Only one said he was signing up because he needed the money. But the NP still faces a tough PR challenge with ordinary Iraqis, many of whom still fear and loathe all police. Asked his view of the different services, Jamal Izzi, who runs a Baghdad Internet café, responded with a damning Iraqi proverb: "The excrement is just as dirty as urine." With attitudes like that, bureaucratic wrangling may be the least of the problems facing the new recruits.

© 2008