Afghan National Civil Order Police

An Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) honor guard stands in formation at the Ministry of the Interior in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) is a special police unit developed in July 2006 by Colonel Jack Stankiewicz, US Army, Police Reformation Directorate, CSTC-A of the law enforcement agency in Afghanistan. It is a branch of the Afghan National Police and has stations in major cities and towns across Afghanistan.

Role

ANCOP's mission is to provide civil order presence patrols, prevent violent public incidents, and provide crisis and anti-terror response in urban and metropolitan environments.[1] Like the Afghan Border Police, ANCOP is a branch of the Afghan National Police (ANP), under the nation's Ministry of the Interior.

Organization

Afghan National Civil Order Police Training Center in Mazar-i-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan.

ANCOP's 5,365 authorized strength is commanded by a Major General. ANCOP is divided into five Brigades, each commanded by a Brigadier General. These brigades are stationed in Kabul, Paktia, Kandahar, Herat, and Mazar-i-Sharif.

Given they undergo 16 weeks of training and have a higher literacy rate than the regular Afghan National Police, ANCOP are generally considered a more elite force than the regular ANP that oversees them.[2] They are the most deployable force of the ANP. Since December 2009, the French gendarmes (43 in March 2011) and the Spanish officers, Dutch and Polish, under the mandate of the European Gendarmerie Force, operating in the training center of the Afghan National Civil Order Police to Mazar-e-Sharif. The training center in Western Afghanistan's Herat Province is staffed with a contingent of Italian Carbinieri augmented by a number of Polish Military Police and United States Marines.

The ANCOP are routinely utilized as a replacement force when a local unit of ANP are sent for initial training to a NATO-led basic training facility. As well, ANCOP are also heavily utilized as a "surge" force of police wherever necessary within the country. As a result, an average ANCOP officer has been deployed on the front lines for a longer average time than his regular ANP counterpart; which has created an inordinate amount of turnover within the ANCOP force.[3]

Salary and benefits

In return for the higher commitment of training and fighting, ANCOP officers are promoted to sergeant and receive approximately $265 a month, roughly double the salary of a regular new ANP recruit.[4] The ANCOP personnel have thwarted several insurgent attacks over the last few years in Kabul.

Special Support Battalion

It has two SWAT teams, several explosive ordnance disposal teams, a heavy weapons company, transportation company and logistics support company.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Afghan National Security Forces Order of Battle, The Long War Journal, CJ Radin, Nov 2008.
  2. ↑ United States Plan for Sustaining the Afghanistan National Security Forces, Report to Congress, 2008 National Defense Authorization Act (Section 1231, Public Law 110-181), June 2008
  3. ↑ ANCOP Under Strain. Al Jazeera. Apr 13, 2010. http://www.longwarjournal.org/videos/2010/04/ancop_under_strain.php Retrieved on: Aug 6, 2010.
  4. ↑ Afghan Police Earning Poor Grade for Marja Mission. Chivers, C.J. NY Times. Jun 1, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/world/asia/02marja.html?_r=1 Retrieved on: Aug 6, 2010.
  5. ↑ http://www.ntm-a.com/news/1-categorynews/2355-new-ancop-battalion-stands-up-in-kabul-?lang=
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