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WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2005 – Representatives from the Afghan National Police will travel to the United States later this week to become familiar with how civilian and military police operate in America.
Army Maj. Michael Adelberg, current operations officer for the Police Reform Directorate at the Office of Security Cooperation Afghanistan, will escort one ANP general officer and one colonel during the weeklong trip. "This trip is an excellent opportunity for the ANP to see the type of program in action that we are trying to set up for Afghanistan," Adelberg said. Adelberg will accompany ANP Brig. Gen. Baini, deputy chief of Uniformed Police, and Col. Wassim, the Interior Ministry's operations director. Another focus of the visit is to meet with members of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division, at Fort Drum, N.Y., which is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom early in 2006. Adelberg will speak to the division's leaders and soldiers about the operational role of the Police Reform Directorate and the Afghan National Police. "It is a win-win situation for both the 10th and the ANP officers," said U.S. Army Col. Barringer Wingard, chief of the Police Operations Division. "The soldiers from the 10th will have the opportunity to meet the ANP officers they will work with while they are here, and the ANP officers get to learn how American police operate and visit the states." After they visit with the soldiers at Fort Drum, the Afghan officers are planning to visit civilian police departments in the area. With the help of the provost marshal at Fort Drum, they will visit a large police department in Syracuse, N.Y. Then, to get an idea how a small-town department works, they will visit Watertown Police Department. Observing customs operations at the Canadian-American border is also on their agenda. "It will be good for the ANP police officers to experience what policing is like in the United States," Wingard said. "They will see females, different races and religions all working together. They will experience what we are trying to get them to implement in their departments here." "Exposing the police delegates to the 10th Mountain Division and U.S. civilian police forces will be instrumental in our efforts to reform the ANP and foster a long-lasting genuine professional relationship," Billie Fitzgerald, chief of the Police Reform Directorate, said. (Air Force Staff Sgt. Victoria Meyer is assigned to the Office of Security Cooperation Afghanistan.)
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