January 8, 2005
The Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, as part of their on-going effort to organize, train and equip Iraqi police services, recently began a Hostage Crisis Negotiation course at an undisclosed location. Iraqi police officers from all over Iraq and from different Iraqi police agencies are attending the course.
“This course is a tool,” said instructor Wayne Lehman. “We’re giving them tools, resources, and ideas. We give them some concepts to be able to work things out for themselves.”
The course has 31 students from the Iraqi Police Service, Department of Border Enforcement, the Iraqi Highway Patrol, the Major Crimes Unit and other agencies. The two-week course was implemented recently and it gives officers skills in coping with the rash of kidnappings occurring in Iraq. Many of Iraq’s kidnappings target Iraqis.
As part of the formal training, ten Iraqi police officers in Magdad traveled to a residential neighborhood as part of their regular street patrol when they ran into a hostage scenario. A suspicious man was reported in the neighborhood and as police investigated the report, a gun fight broke out.
It was then that police noticed that there was a boy being held hostage. After a 45 minute standoff, the five year-old boy was removed safely and four suspects were taken into custody. The boy, the investigation revealed, was a hostage who had been kidnapped for ransom by the suspects.
The course covers principles of negotiation, negotiation criterion, considerations, techniques and guidelines, as well as other topics. But the course, Lehman says, is not all inclusive and it is not designed to prepare police officers for high-profile political kidnappings.
“It’s a philosophy we’re going to give them here,” Lehman said. “We’re here to try to teach them how to deal with the day-to-day stuff that the local cops have to deal with. It’s got to start somewhere. They’re on the street everyday.”
Lehman, who taught the FBI’s hostage negotiation lesson plan in the United States, assembled the course plan from scratch. Ordinarily, most hostage courses also include a segment where a psychologist teaches a block of instruction. CPATT’s course doesn’t include a psychological segment, but Lehman says the organization is working on it.
“It’s got to start somewhere,” Lehman said. And this course will help officers with a kidnapping problem that Lehman called, “Immense.”
Capt. Hatim Uthman, a police officer in Baghdad since 1995, and a graduate of three training courses since the fall of Saddam Hussein, said the course broadened his thought process on the job.
“This course gets me to think about things differently,” Uthman said. “It offers new information for me. We’re here to try to learn how we can help in kidnapping scenarios.
“We’re all experienced here, but this is new to us,” Uthman said.
Other Police Training Activities
Iraqi Police Service officers in Bayji, near Kirkuk in Northern Iraq, commenced “train the trainer” courses with international police advisors and multinational forces on November 1.
The classes run Bayji officers through personnel and vehicle searches, countering force-protection threats, traffic control point operations, police leader and trainer skills, patrol distribution, duty roster management, and joint coordination center operations instruction.
Train the trainer courses are typically designed to provide Iraqi Security Forces personnel the ability to train future classes.
The Iraqi Police Service graduated 67 officers from three advanced instruction courses at the Adnan Training Facility, here, today, as part of the Iraqi government’s ongoing effort to train up its security forces. Officers spent two weeks negotiating the specialty skill courses intended to augment the standard eight-week police training all officers undergo prior to service. The courses, consisting of a basic criminal investigation, a first-line supervision, and a kidnapping course ran 20, 23, and 24 students, respectively through the training.
Specialized Police
The Iraqi Police graduated 1,938 specialized police officers; 1,190 Public Order Police and 748 Mechanized Police officers Dec. 30. The officers completed intensive five week training programs conducted at the Civil Intervention Force Academy.
The Iraqi Minister of Interior has turned to the Public Order Police to act as a bridging force in cities where the police force has not yet been established or will be reconstituted due to insurgency activity. They provide a critical security presence, maintaining law and order, to ensure the safety and security of the local populace.
The 8th Mechanized Police Brigade is a paramilitary police force designed to battle insurgents and assist local law enforcement officials dealing with serious insurgent threats or major criminal activity. The unit is equipped with “BTRs,” wheeled armored vehicles with fire power capable of full-combat operations.
“These units require more training and more advanced equipment. However, once deployed to areas of unrest, they will be effective because of their training, motivation and morale, and dedication to their country,” says Col. Lawrence Pippins, program manager, counterterrorism special operations, for the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team.
Officers attending the courses came from areas throughout Iraq and will be deployed to their respective assignments following graduation. More than 1,000 officers who previously completed the course have been outfitted, equipped and deployed in support of security operations.
Sources: US Department of Defense, National Association of Chiefs of Police Extension Services Unit
