CIVPOL Diary: Back in the chilly desert

By Supt. Joe McAllister

See also...

Archive of entries

Afghanistan— After a long Christmas break that included surgery, snow, sand and surf, I've been back at it now for a few weeks.  Afghanistan truly does not leave your system even when you are away that long. We lost a lot of soldiers in December, including ones I knew fairly well. Three were from our Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) and one was a police mentor I met when he arrived in mission and just when he was going home before Christmas.   Having just come back from the latest ramp ceremony, I can honestly say I never get used to these events. Watching these young men carry their comrade along the path between all the troops is a solemn moment.

  We had the opportunity to gather all the civilian police in mission together for a three day conference over the past week at the PRT. Included were some of our fellow officers from Kabul. Each officer gave an account of what he had been up to during his tour, including his experiences, both good and bad, where he felt we needed to focus our efforts and what he had or hoped to accomplish on his tour. Originally we thought this would not take a long time, but it lasted all day and was a big eye opener for many.

It was also a validation exercise since we have never worked in this type of environment before, nor have we had access to development funds in such great numbers.  Normally when we go to UN missions, Courts and Tribunals or training missions, everything in the mission is dealt with or paid for by the host agency.  Alternately, we are given a per diem and able to live in the community where we work.  Here, however, we are the host agency living on military bases, working inside the military machine and following military rules and procedures. We also have the unique opportunity to use special funds for projects in numbers never seen at our level. Last year we spent over a million dollars on projects to help our Afghan National Police in Canada's key districts.

The great part is that some of the Canadian police officers have designed these projects. They  were even able to see their progression, from first shovel in the ground to a finished police station, fully equipped with new furniture, new uniforms and new police to man them. They have had the unique opportunity to plan, collaborate, fund and see the full completion of many projects.  And they see the benefit it brings to the police and the community around them.

Recently, I presented the General Service medal to three more of our lads. It’s something I’m very proud and honored to do. The medal is in recognition of great service to their country, to the people of Afghanistan and for their bravery and selflessness in  giving up over a year of their life to this mission. Constables  Jeff Hirsch, Ryan Mitchell and Bing Chow all did outstanding jobs in their own unique ways.

These guys will be missed as an integral part of the team, and even though others will fill their spots, there will be yet another hole as three more guys leave the mission behind.

I also had the unique opportunity to meet with the Minister of the Interior, Mr Atmar. He is a very nice gentleman and the equivalent of our Minister of Public Safety.  We brought him down to Kandahar for a few reasons, one of which was to certify our training centre, so we could offer credit courses for the Afghan police.  As with any professional development, unless your course is recognized and the certificate is validated by your organization, it doesn't mean much for your career even though you can still use it and apply it.

I explained the RCMP and CIVPOL history of teaching worldwide on missions and what we hoped to provide his officers. He was absolutely behind us 100%. He leaned forward and promised to sign the certification in four days time. I was nice and told him he could take five if he needed, which got a chuckle out of him. Once signed, this will truly be one of our legacy projects. He is very big on developing his police into doing more intelligence led operations, much like our crime analyst back home do.  We took him over to our training centre and showed him around the school and the area we intend to develop. He was very excited about our school and what we have done here.

Our intent is to bring in some good afghan police officers and work with them so they can become instructors. From there, we will mentor them and, when needed, bring in subject matter experts for whatever courses are needed.  We are lucky to have a senior advisor here who used to be the director of the Canadian Police College in Ottawa. She is the advisor to the minister on policy and gender issues.  She has provided great advice and insight into challenges we may still face, but I think we have a good shot at this.

I have an end date for  my mission at long last. While I'm excited, there is still so much to accomplish and it’s hard to believe that over 14 months have passed. There are areas  where I feel we are on the cusp of a breakthrough, then circumstances set us back a few steps. Recent attacks in the city and to the ANP keep us all on our toes and I try not to focus on the end date as much as what I have to do tomorrow.    As my friend used to say "Afghanistan is a big elephant and you can only eat it one bite at a time.”

Cheers,

Joe