Update on efforts to professionalize the Afghan National Police
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 12:03AM 
Dreazen story in the WSJ on the SysAdmin effort in Afghanistan: the great battled against endemic corruption within the Afghan National Police.
Latest tricks: dial #119 to drop a dime on corrupt cops, blue dye that marks government gas so the cops won't sell it off for personal gain (about one-fifth on average disappears), and electronic funds transfers of salaries so police superiors have a harder time demanding kickbacks. In the past, they would just send the salary total for entire units to regional bases, which would then distribute them in cash. Stunning, when you think about it.
But it's almost always these small training/human resources/personnel stuff that defines the major differences between professional and non-professional forces--not the gear nor the numbers nor the funding (beyond salaries, that is). Rooting out the waste, fraud and abuse follows all that, but it cannot replace good wages.
Recent polling said the average bribe paid to cops by citizens was $160--in a country with a per capita income of just over $400. That will get you a lot of angry people.
New officers are now getting $165 a month now--a wonderfully symmetrical number. You ought to be able to beat the average bribe with your monthly salary.
Holbrooke, our special envoy to both Afghanistan and Pakistan, goes around telling the world that the police is terribly corrupt and inadequate, which is probably true, but I just wish the guy actually accomplished something in all his travels and speeches beyond such criticism. I mean, hasn't he be a tremendous non-entity in this whole effort?
