KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Afghan National Police are making progress towards standing on their own two feet, despite a recent series of ambushes and targeted assassinations of officers in Kandahar province, say RCMP trainers.
Over the last few weeks, more than a dozen police have been killed in at least three separate attacks in which Taliban militants have claimed responsibility.
The death toll might have been higher had not been for the training provided by Canadian police based at the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) base.
"We try as best we can to improve their survivability by teaching the in-service skills we do here,'' said Supt. Dave Fudge, whose unit has spent over a year mentoring local cops.
"I think we are progressing. The sentiment on the street is the security situation in Kandahar is improving. That's very positive.''
Fudge said he's seeing a more-disciplined force emerging, especially when it comes to handling roadside bomb attacks, but noted they still have a long way to go.
Canadian police officers have provided training in survival skills, tactics, policing, public safety skills and suspect search, among other things.
"They're being more disciplined at IED (improvised explosive device) sites regarding scene management and actual evidence gathering,'' he said.
This time last year, as Canadian troops were first deploying to this volatile region, the Taliban were on a killing spree, targeting lightly armed police checkpoints. In the course of 52 days last winter and spring a total of 41 officers were killed.
Fudge said it's too early to say whether the recent deaths of 13 officers, including two senior commanders in Kandahar and one in Panjwaii, constitute a trend similar to 2006 _ or simply a spasm of unfocused violence.
"It's certainly raised our eyebrows,'' he said in an interview. "It's a concern, but we have no indication right now that they're related.''
But the police commander in the Zhari district, a former Taliban stronghold, had no hesitation in calling the attacks a trend.
Col. Akarasool said he has been targeted in the past and fully expects to remain in the cross-hairs of militants.
"They don't want me to be safe (and) they try to kill me and other police commanders,'' he said through a translator.
"I have been bombed by Taliban. My hands were hurt. I was injured by Taliban, so I hope I catch Taliban. They are my enemy.''
Asked if he feared for his life, Akarasool said with a bravado laugh: "Almost.''
The day he was interviewed, the chief had just returned from sweeping the road between this tiny, arid village and nearby Sangiser. After receiving reports that insurgents had laced winding gravel lane with mines, Akarasool took a dozen of his 200 officers in three pickup trucks and went for a drive, but found no explosives.
The brazen patrol, conducted without the benefit of military escort or even mine detectors, highlighted for Fudge the difference between western methods and expectations of policing and the Afghan way.
"Civilian policing as you and I know it does not exist in Afghanistan,'' he said.
"It is a very dangerous occupation. Here many times these officers are put on the front line. They're a paramilitary force.''
Canada's Foreign Affairs Department recently invested $10 million in the Kandahar police, providing them with better equipment and support. Military engineers at the PRT are currently surveying checkpoints to determine which ones can be improved.
Kandahar province currently has 1,800 Afghan National Police officers and there are plans to recruit another 1,000.
One of the biggest obstacles facing the force is winning public trust in communities they're asked to protect.
Stories of corruption among the officers are legion, fuelled by underpaid cops sometimes establishing illegal checkpoints and shaking down civilians. There is a level of mistrust in the tightly-knit villages because most police officers are from elsewhere in the country and often transferred between provinces.
"There are problems,'' said Fudge. "There is corruption, a byproduct of the pay, a byproduct of 30 years of strife, finding a way to survive.''
In order to improve security, the government last year authorized the creation of an auxiliary police force, which has its recruits serve in their own community.
