U.S. civilian cops offer expertise to Iraq police force

FOR THE RECORD:
Iraqi police training: An article in Saturday's Section A about American police officers in Iraq to train Iraqi police officers said that the 800 Americans were working under a DynCorp International contract with the U.S. military. Although DynCorp's trainers work with the military, the contract mentioned in the article is with the U.S. State Department. —

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As the air conditioner weakly rumbled in the background, U.S. Army Sgt. Chai Kim lectured his Iraqi counterpart on the proper role of a logistics officer.

"They keep the numbers on the vehicles. They don't fix them," Kim said through the interpreter. "How many trucks? Who took it out? How many miles? What purpose?"

Iraqi police 1st Lt. Mushtaq Talib answered dourly.

"The motor pool, they have a guy for that," he said.

"That is going to change," Kim replied. "Being a logistics officer is about money management."

Acree stayed silent. But later, he let Mushtaq know that he thought Kim might have been a little inflexible.

"You know how to get your job done and I know you know," he had the interpreter tell the young Iraqi officer.

A key assignment

Acree, on leave from his post with the Georgia state police, is in the capital of Anbar province as a civilian consultant to the Ramadi Police Department. Eighteen months after the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq was run out of town, his job is to help rebuild a key institution in the western province.

Acree is one of about 800 civilian police officers working under a military contract with DynCorp International. Unlike the thousands of civilian contractors who have come to Iraq to supplement the military, Acree and his colleagues don't provide security services. They're here to impart their experience in urban police work to a young and inadequately trained and equipped force.

The consultants, whose pay starts at $134,000 a year, are assigned to U.S. military police units and travel in convoys of Humvees. Acree and two other DynCorp contractors bunk with a company of Marines in an abandoned warehouse on Ramadi's eastern outskirts.

The cops weren't authorized by DynCorp to give interviews, but the military police unit allowed The Times to come along for two days to observe the training program.

The unit has been teaching neophyte Iraqi policemen, known as shortas, basic skills such as arrest procedures, traffic control and field communications. DynCorp runs formal classes on specialized subjects such as detective technique at the main military base, Camp Ramadi.

Acree and his roommates also make the rounds of the city's police stations to work with more senior officers, trying to improve procurement practices, discipline and accountability.

Like many of his colleagues, Acree, 37, is older than the MPs he works with and sometimes has more tolerance for the tradition-bound style of the Iraqi police, even as he pushes them toward a Western model.

Long-range view