Joint Chiefs of Staff Report Offers Blunt and Sobering Assessment of Afghan National Police

September 9, 2014

The website publicintelligence.net has placed online a restricted access (For Official Use Only) Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) assessment of the capabilities of Afghan National Police (ANP), which can be read here.

You can’t help feeling depressed that the ANP is still in this sort of pitiful shape 13 years after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and tens of billions of dollars spent trying to boost its manpower and increase its ability to secure the Afghan countryside.

Here are some of the more trenchant findings of the JCS report:

Many Police Chiefs are Appointed Due to Patronage: “Many ANP chiefs owe their position not to leadership ability or police experience, but to the patronage of a local leader. As a result, advisors must often guide them very closely to help them do the right things.” 

Police Chiefs Often Feel They Can Fleece the Population: “Many chiefs also feel that their position grants them the right to certain ‘benefits’ including skimming pay or demanding additional compensation from the community.” 

Police Can Often Have Ties to Illegal Militias or the Taliban: “That many ANP owe their jobs to the influence of these local leaders has led to the perception that many of them have ties to insurgents or the Taliban, work with illegal militias, or have questionable loyalty to the ANP over their tribal benefactors. Unfortunately, in many cases, these perceptions are reality. The lack of a comprehensive national criminal database also makes weeding out the bad very difficult. In a country where mid to upper level Taliban leaders can freely travel the streets because no one is able or willing to identify them makes infiltration of the ANP by criminals and insurgents a foregone conclusion.” 

Police Corruption is Rampant: “Corruption can be found at all levels, and may be justified by reasoning that the ANP risk much and are underpaid. One favorite tactic is to ‘shake down’ travelers at [traffic control points]. Another is to steal various items while conducting the search of a home. Leaders must be encouraged to follow up on reported acts such as these and to resolve them. Unresolved issues such as these can and will lead to more violence against the ANP and more support for insurgents.”