Iraqi Police
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The Iraqi Police are the organic civil police force of the Republic of Iraq. The creation of this unit was guided by the Coalition Provisional Authority however the command and control of the Police belongs to the new Government of Iraq.
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[edit] Overview
The Iraqi Police Forces collectively form the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) which in conjunction with the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team (CPATT), a branch of the Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq (MNSTC-I), is responsible for assisting the Iraqi government train, mentor, and equip the Iraqi civil security forces, on behalf of Multi-National Force-Iraq. The team was formerly known as the Coalition Police Assistance Training Team, which was a branch of the Office of Security Transition.
[edit] Structure
The Iraqi Police are formed into three main branches. The Iraqi Police Service (IPS) is responsible for the day to day patrolling of cities around most crimes. The National Police (NP) are a paramilitary force that gives the MOI a force to deal with insurgent violence, public disorder and counter terrorist tasks, without requiring the Iraqi Army. Finally the Supporting Forces encompass most of the remaining police organizations. The primary part of the supporting forces being the Department of Border Enforcement (DBE) which is tasked with securing Iraqs borders and ports of entry.
[edit] Uniforms
The IPS wears a long sleeve light blue shirt like that of the United States Air Force and a dark blue utility pant like that of the United States Navy enlisted utility uniform. To signify their status as IPS officers they wear a dark blue baseball cap with POLICE written in white lettering, English over Arabic, and a dark blue brassard on the left arm embroidered top to bottom with the Iraqi flag, IP in English and Iraqi Police in Arabic. Police officers can currently be found wearing black shoes, black boots and tan boots. Currently they are transitioning to the tan boot only.
The NP has recently developed a new unique black and blue camouflage uniform, which includes a baseball cap. NP Members wear either black or tan boots. Issue of this uniform only takes place once Brigades complete a police retraining course. Units that are yet to undergo retraining can be found in a variety of uniforms including a woodland camouflage.
The DBE can be found wearing a khaki (tan) BDU. They too can be found wearing both black and tan boots as the entire force transitions to tan boots. A khaki cap or black beret can be worn.
Rank insignia for the IPF is identical to that of the Iraqi Army with the only change being that shoulder boards are the same color as the shirt of the officer. This too has an exception in that IPS office shoulder boards are dark blue same as the pants, hat and brassard.
[edit] Dangers faced by Iraqi police
The Iraqi police force has faced numerous problems since it was reformed by the U.S. controlled Coalition Provisional Authority after the fall of Baghdad. It has become the target of fighters from both inside and outside Iraq with many thousands of its force killed by a combination of gunfire and bombings by Iraqi insurgents, foreign terrorists and occasionally US troops. According to a compilation of reports by the website icasualties.organ estimated 4,250 serving Iraqi police offcers had been killed between January 2005 and the 4th March 2006. Due to the high unemployment levels in Iraq there has been a willing number of young Iraqi men willing to join up to do the task. Many have died even before pulling on a uniform after being killed by both suicide bombers and suicide car bombs whilst queueing at police recruitment stations.
The police force has also seen the infiltration of its ranks by insurgents of various guises and motives. With access to privileged information, training and weapons they have used the force to their tactical advantage. Many police stations have been attacked, blown up had weapons stolen from them and at times occupied by those who oppose the Iraqi government. As a result, many police officers have deserted their posts, others took off their uniforms and turned their weapons on the US forces who trained them. For other Iraqis the perils of being in the force didn't stop once they left work. There have been dozens of reports of attacks on policemen and women whilst they were returning home from duty.
[edit] The Iraqi police and Islamic law
The Baathist regime operated under a single-party dictatorship that had a fairly secular legal system. While the Personal Status Law of 1958 gave religious courts some authority over members of their own religion, many Islamic based restrictions on personal freedom did not exist in Baathist Iraq as they do in neighboring nations such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. Alcohol and pork products were both legal, nightclubs did not have to be segregated based on gender, women were allowed to have public careers, and up until 2001 the only sexual conduct between consenting adults that officially illegal was adultery, and incest. In 2001, the Baathist regime amended the criminal code to make homosexuality, adultery, rape and prostitution capital crimes.
The fall of the Baathist regime and the legalization of the various Iraqi opposition political parties, the liberalization of laws concerning freedom of religion and speech, along with ongoing violence and chaos has given an opportunity for Islamic fundamentalist insurgents and political parties to harass, even murder Iraqi businesses and citizens that violate Islamic mores.
Some Iraqi Muslim clerics have openly called for the greater integration of fundamentalist Islamic law in Iraq, and the current Iraqi Constitution provides that no law or right shall exist that violates Islamic morality [1].
The powerful Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq has been linked to the harassment and beating of Iraqis that sell alcohol, women that are "unchaste", and those people that wear western clothing or listen to western music. The Council's Badr Organization or Cell has also been linked to the "death squad" murder of gay and transgender Iraqis and as a result many Iraqi women and homosexuals are fearful of appearing in public as the Badr is enforing religious law [2].
Currently, the Law of Iraq is the Criminal Code of 1969 which contains several vague prohibitions against public immorality or indecency, but it would appear that the definition and enforcement of Islamic morality is being left up to various private citizens and paramilitary groups. Thus various news reports seem to suggest that both the Iraqi police and the foreign troops have been allowing Islamic fundamentalists to take the law into their own hands, and punish anyone they suspect of being guilty of immorality.
In Basra for instance it was reported that police guarding a local park made no attempt to stop an armed group from severely beating two women and then shooting dead a male Iraqi friend of theirs. It's suggested that the motivation for the attack was the mixing of men and women in a public place. In some instances it has been said that the armed groups involved in these and other political killings were actually police officers.
Iraqi police and foreign troops also seen to been ignoring the actions taken by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq's "Badr Organization" to engage in death marches against Iraqi gay and transgender citizens. For more information on this topic see Gay rights in Iraq.
[edit] Iraqi police and the Iraqi government
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The Iraqi Government has also been accused of using (or tolerating) the police and other groups to carry out sectarian killings and kidnappings of Sunni Iraqis. In December 2005 the Iraqi Interior Ministry found itself the centre of attention when US troops found 170 prisoners being held in a Baghdad ministry building. Twelve of the prisoners were reportedly showing signs of serious torture and many other signs of malnourishment. It was reported that Police Commando's had been responsible for some of the prisoners.
This story only served to lend weight to the accusations and sew more distrust of the police force. A report into the findings at the building was promised by Iraqi President Ibrahim Jaafari at the end of December 2005 but as of the 4th May 2006 no report has been issued. It's is also the case that groups infiltrating the Iraqi police have stolen uniforms and carried out kidnappings and killings whilst dressed as police. When you combine these actions with those of members of the police force carrying out killings outside their own code of conduct it is often very difficult to identify exactly who is responsible.
The Iranian trained 'Badr Organization', an armed wing of the Shia SCIRI party, had long being suspected by Sunni's as being backed by the Iraqi Interior Ministry in carrying out attacks on Sunni Iraqis, along with homosexuals and "unchaste" women. In 2006 News reports have stated the Badr Organization has stepped up its "death marches" of "immoral" Iraqis after the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for the death of Sunni Muslims and homosexuals.[citation needed]
The US State Department in 2006 released a human rights report the accused Iraq's police force of widespread atrocities.[3][4]
The Iraqi government dismantled in october 2006 a complete police brigade because they had connections with sectarian death squadrons. Instead of fighting against the death squads, the police helped them. The dismantled brigade has been transferred to a US base where they will be re-educated for their police job. Other police brigades will be subject of internal investigations for any liaison with death squads or other groups.
On November 14, 2006, some workers of the Ministry of Higher Education were kidnapped by gunmen who are suspected to be linked to Shi'ite militias and the Iraqi police. During that morning, kidnappers who wore recently-issued Iraqi police uniforms raided a Ministry of Higher Education building and seized over 100 men during broad daylight. There were reports that the vehicles which carried the hostages passed through Iraqi police checkpoints without being stopped. The Ministry of Interior spokesperson said that there are reports that the remaining hostages were to have been transported to Sadr City, a Shi'ite militia stronghold in eastern Iraq. At least several senior Iraqi police officers were being investigated. This incident calls into question the links between Shi'ite militias and the Iraqi police, where the true power of Iraqi security forces lie, and tensions between the Sunni-controlled Ministry of Higher Education and the Shi'ite-controlled Ministry of Interior.
[edit] Number of serving Iraqi police officers
The actual number of police is notoriously hard to gauge, since local police chiefs may pad their numbers to get more funding for their stations, and people may drift in and out of service. The total payroll for the Ministry of Interior exceeds 180,000, and the number of police actually in service has been estimated at anywhere between 79,000-140,000.
