Iraqi police build relationships with future generations

Iraqi police have been making strides here for the past several months in training and security missions. Today, Iraqi police took a break from their patrols to spend some time with the people that will run this country in future generations; the children of Iraq.

Soldiers from the 451st Civil Affairs Battalion supplied gifts for the police to hand out to children and informational flyers to give to parents. They also walked along with the police mentoring them in techniques on how to interact with the local populace and develop a relationship with them.

"The biggest thing that we're working on is we're trying to help the transition from having the coalition forces being the lead on security and working with the people to having the Iraqi security forces, in this case the Iraqi police, going out to tell the people they are there to protect and serve them," said Maj. John Scharrett, a civil affairs officer in the 451st Civil Affairs Battalion.

Scharrett said building the relationship between the people and the police is integral to reducing the amount of terrorism in local neighborhoods.

"The idea is to break down the barriers between the civilians and the Iraqi police so the civilians feel more comfortable reporting to the police when any potentially violent crimes may be occurring," he said.

Sgt. Peter Palmiotto, a civil affairs team member, said it is up to the Iraqi police to break those barriers, and coalition forces are here to mentor them on how best to do that.

"We really 1want the police to start taking an effort to get to know their community," Palmiotto said. "In order for us to do our job, and maybe go home, we want the community to rely on their own people, not to rely on us. Once they start relying on them, and trusting them, things will run a lot smoother."

"As we do more and more of these, as we start to expand out, it's moving a lot quicker," he said. "People are getting the word. They're starting to trust their own police."

The Iraqi police don't have a lot of training on performing civil affairs missions. The 451st are mentoring the police and providing avenues for them to interact with the people.

"We coach and mentor the Iraqi police to get to know the people a little bit better," Scharrett said. "We've given them a lot of different vehicles to do that. We've given them handbills that they're passing out to the people to initiate conversation. And, we've also given them some toys and some candy so they can hand them out to the kids."

Scharrett believes the Iraqi police are the future of Iraq, and helping the police build a relationship with the people is the path to success here.

"They're going to keep the peace when the coalition forces draw down its troops and leaves," Scharrett said. "We're hoping that the second and third generations of Iraqis from today will understand that these police are their friends and they're here to help them."