RELEASE NUMBER: 040621-03
DATE POSTED: JUNE 21, 2004
Dahuk police get help from civil affairs Soldiers
By Spc. Aaron Ritter
139th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
DAHUK, Iraq (USASOC News Service, June 21, 2004) — Coalition Soldiers
of the 416th Civil Affairs Battalion provided police officers in the
Dahuk Governorate much needed equipment May 5 to better prepare the
police department to protect its citizens from crime and to continue
the rebuilding of Iraq’s infrastructure.
The Army Reserve unit from Norristown, Pa. headed the project, which
included the distribution of 12 desktop computers, three copy machines,
three fax machines, three digital cameras and two new police vehicles.
The $30,000 project, funded by the Commander’s Emergency Response
Program, was identified as a priority need by community leaders in the
region.
“This equipment is important because many of the districts are lacking
the necessary vehicles and computer systems to effectively do their
jobs to the best of their abilities,” said Sgt. Jeffrey Gliem, the
public safety team leader for the 416th.
Throughout the governorate’s six districts, the police only have 25
patrol vehicles, while two districts have no vehicles at all.
Gliem said many officers in the districts are restricted to their
posts, usually around the thoroughfares and intersections to monitor
traffic and keep their presence known to the public. They often have to
take taxis to their posts because the police do not have vehicles to
transport them to and from their work posts.
“We wanted to help the department to become a more mobile entity,” he
said. “An officer can’t really patrol much area on foot, so we hope by
doing this we can at least improve the department’s response time and
increase their ability to patrol the neighborhoods so their citizens
know they’re there to protect them.”
Besides the increased patrol capabilities, the police department also
received computers to improve their ability to track and record
criminal activity.
Brig. Gen. Nazar R. Aziz, the Dahuk Governorate Chief of Police, said
the office equipment will also greatly improve the department’s ability
to coordinate with its 29 police substations because they will be able
to communicate crimes in real-time.
“The fax machines will be used to distribute important information to
other larger cities, such as descriptions of stolen cars or possible
terrorist activities,” Aziz said. “The computers will help us better
process information and statistics of criminal activity and form a
database on the offenders.”
Presently, the department does not have a criminal justice information
system established to keep such information. Training is planned in the
near future to teach officers how to create a criminal database.
The three digital cameras provided by Coalition forces will also assist
the Dahuk Police Department in investigating crime scenes and traffic
accidents.
The 416th is responsible for assisting citizens in northern Iraq in
rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and the Soldiers hope to
complete more projects in the future to better assist the Dahuk
Governorate Police Department with their fight against crime.
“I love to see how happy the officers are to receive this equipment,”
Gliem said. “Doing this makes me feel like I have done something at the
end of the day and makes me want to strive harder to get more projects
approved for these people in the future.”
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