BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 28, 2004 — The Civilian Police Assistance Training Team graduated 30 Iraqi police officers from the Iraqi Justice Training Center’s inaugural Mid-Level Management Course here May 27, 2004, as part of an ongoing effort to mentor and train the Iraqi Police Service.

The course, conducted by Civilian Police Assistance Training Team civilian contractors in their endeavor to advance the efficiency and leadership skills of the Iraqi Police Service’s more seasoned personnel, runs officers through 12 days of training with experienced foreign former law enforcement officers.

Instructors come from varied law enforcement backgrounds ranging from former police to FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents and include, in most cases, other Coalition instructors with similar experience.

Training includes indoctrination in the basic elements of management, modern law enforcement supervision techniques, crime scene management, civil disorder and natural disaster management, budgeting processes, management communication, police management ethics, group problem solving and police mission and values instruction.

The average mid-level student officer carries some 10 to 12 years experience in Iraq’s former police service.

The Coalition is here to help Iraq build their justice system, said Senior Advisor to the Minister of the Interior, Steve Casteel, guest of honor and former Drug Enforcement Administration head of intelligence.

“But what they produce is just a series of papers,” Casteel said. “Someone needs to take those papers and put them into law. And that responsibility falls to you.”

Casteel and the Ministry of the Interior work closely with the training team in standing up the Iraqi civil security forces. The organization is a division of the Coalition Provisional Authority’s Office of Security Cooperation tasked with the larger mission of additionally training and equipping the Iraqi Armed Forces along with the civil security forces meant to protect and enforce the laws as well as the infrastructure of the nation.

So far the Coalition unit has stood up an Iraqi Police Force of more than 83,000 officers currently in service throughout the country along with additional Border Police, Customs Police, Immigration Police, National Security Police, Facilities Protection Service forces, and Diplomatic Protection Service officers. The efforts have initially produced a total force approaching some 180,000 trained Iraq civil security forces throughout the country.

The Iraqi’s crave leadership skills and training and just soak up whatever is provided for them, said training team chief of staff Marine Corps Col. Michael D. Greer.

“It’s gratifying to see the result of everybody’s efforts,” he added.

The Mid-Level Management Course is part of the training team's mission to provide additional specialized training to the Iraqi Police Service's mid-level and senior-level managers as well as to continue the molding and mentoring process the Coalition committed to-looking toward the nation’s imminent democratic independence on June 30. The police force ultimately will consist of 90,000 officers covering 18 provinces and assigned to 550 Iraqi Police Service stations. This group of graduates are specifically from Baghdad, however, and will return to duty immediately at substations in the Iraqi capital city.

An Iraqi Police Service major, one of the 30 graduates, said that the training benefited the police trainees by providing them with specific instruction on how to lead their officers.

“We are very excited. Very proud,” he added. “We get to serve our country and our community. Any honest man in our place in this country and these difficult circumstances would be proud to serve and uphold the law.”

The training center is located adjacent to the future headquarters of both the training team and the Ministry of the Interior at the Adnon Palace in the Green Zone. Prior to service in the Iraqi Police Service, experienced police officers undergo a short three-week transition integration program in lieu of the longer eight-week basic training course for non-prior service recruits at the Baghdad Public Service Academy also located at the palace.

The Adnon palace was formerly the home of Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law, Adnon, who was killed by the former dictator after a short-lived defection and estrangement from the country and family. The instructional schools are just the first of several similar civil security force instructional institutions slated to become operational in the coming months in Iraq.

“Every morning you should think to yourself, ‘I can make a difference,’” Casteel told the graduates. “But the one thing we can’t give you is leadership,” he added. “I now challenge you to step forward and lead.”