One step at a time

No one said it was going to be easy, especially for the Afghans on the front line. In spite of all the obstacles and difficulties, progress is being made.

Kandahar cops making progress: RCMP

Murray Brewster, Canadian Press
Published: Saturday, February 03, 2007

"Civilian policing as you and I know it does not exist in Afghanistan," he said.
"It is a very dangerous occupation. Here many times these officers are put on the front line. They're a paramilitary force."

Canada's Foreign Affairs Department recently invested $10 million in the Kandahar police, providing them with better equipment and support. Military engineers at the PRT are currently surveying checkpoints to determine which ones can be improved.

Kandahar province currently has 1,800 Afghan National Police officers and there are plans to recruit another 1,000.

One of the biggest obstacles facing the force is winning public trust in communities they're asked to protect.

Stories of corruption among the officers are legion, fuelled by underpaid cops sometimes establishing illegal checkpoints and shaking down civilians. There is a level of mistrust in the tightly-knit villages because most police officers are from elsewhere in the country and often transferred between provinces.

"There are problems," said Fudge. "There is corruption, a byproduct of the pay, a byproduct of 30 years of strife, finding a way to survive."

In order to improve security, the government last year authorized the creation of an auxiliary police force, which has its recruits serve in their own community.