The Iraqi Police (IP) is the uniformed

police force The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

responsible for the

enforcement Enforcement is the proper execution of the process of ensuring compliance with laws, regulations, rules, standards, and social norms. Governments attempt to effectuate successful implementation of policies by enforcing laws and regulations. E ...

of civil law in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. Its organisation, structure and recruitment were guided by the

Coalition Provisional Authority ) , capital = Baghdad , largest_city = capital , common_languages = Arabic Kurdish English (''de facto'') , government_type = Transitional government , legislature = Iraqi Governing Council , title_leader = Administrator , leader1 = Ja ...

after the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including ...

, and it is commanded by the reformed Iraqi

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

. "IP" refers to the Iraqi Police, and "ISF" to the broader Iraqi security forces. The current commander of the Federal Police Forces is Lieutenant General

Raed Shaker Jawdat Raed Shaker Jawdat ( ar, رائد شاكر جودت), is an Iraqi General. He graduated from the Iraqi Military College in 1978. He is the commander of the Iraqi Federal Police. Wars in which he participated * Liberation of Jurf al-Sakhar (Ope ...

History

The current Iraqi Police has some links with the pre-war Iraqi police service, which was professional and low in repression priority. Therefore, the police were expected to remain cohesive and to be a useful instrument after the invasion as well. It was intended to form the basis for the police force of the new Iraq, but the civil disorder caused this project to be abandoned. Following the emergency stipend payment, some police came back especially in Baghdad and the

U.S. Army military police The United States Army Military Police Corps (USAMPC) is the uniformed law enforcement branch of the United States Army. Investigations are conducted by Military Police Investigators under the Provost Marshal General's Office or Special Agen ...

conducted emergency training. At the same time, in the south the British forces began to establish local police forces in coordination with Shiite religious leaders. In the north, Kurdish

security forces Security forces are statutory organizations with internal security mandates. In the legal context of several nations, the term has variously denoted police and military units working in concert, or the role of military and paramilitary forces (su ...

did not experience any interruption, and in

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...

a thousand former police officers were hired by Major General

David Petraeus David Howell Petraeus (; born November 7, 1952) is a retired United States Army general and public official. He served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from September 6, 2011, until his resignation on November 9, 2012. Prior to ...

in order to maintain the public order. In the meantime, the

worked with the renewed Ministry of Interior in order to purge Baathist officials (7,000 police officers fired by

Bernard Kerik Bernard Bailey Kerik (born September 4, 1955) is an American consultant and former police officer who was the 40th Commissioner of the New York Police Department from 2000 to 2001. As a convicted felon, he obtained a presidential pardon from Pre ...

only in Baghdad) and to establish a police forces in short terms. In the first four months, the first training course was launched and over 4,000 officers were trained. In 2003 recruitment, applicants were mostly former soldiers and police officers who served under the Baathist rule. At the end of 2003, Iraqi Police formally totalled 50,000 officers.

Organization and oversight

In 2009 the Iraqi Police was under the command of Major General Hussein Jassim Alawadi. The

Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq (MNSTC-I) was a training and organizational-support command of the United States Department of Defense. It was established in June 2004. It was a military formation of Multi-National Force – Ir ...

(MNSTC-I) was a

United States Central Command The United States Central Command (USCENTCOM or CENTCOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the U.S. Department of Defense. It was established in 1983, taking over the previous responsibilities of the Rapid Deployment Joint Ta ...

organisation tasked to train, mentor and equip all Iraqi civilian security forces. MNSTC-I also had the

goal A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ...

of training their counterparts in the Iraqi government of Iraq to assume their role. MNSTC-I was dissolved in 2010. The Iraqi Police had three main branches: * ''Iraqi Police Service'': Uniformed organisation tasked with the general patrol of Iraq's cities and incident response * ''Federal Police'': Paramilitary organisation designed to bridge the gap between the police and the army. It responds to domestic incidents beyond the capabilities of the IPS, but not severe enough for the

Iraqi Army The Iraqi Ground Forces (Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), or the Iraqi Army (Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was known as the Royal Iraqi Army up until the coup ...

. The FP originated as the Special Police (SP) on Aug. 15, 2004 to provide national rapid-response capability to counter armed insurgency, large-scale civil disobedience and riots. In 2005, the Ministry of the Interior consolidated its ad-hoc Police Battalions into the Emergency Response Unit (a SWAT unit), the 8th Police mechanised brigade (3 motorised battalions), the Public Order Division (4 brigades/12 battalions), and the Special Police Commando Division (4 brigades/12 battalions)

It became the Iraq National Police (NP) March 30, 2006, and on August 1, 2009 the NP was renamed as the Federal Police. By 2012-13 there were four Federal Police Divisions, spread out around the country. The 1st and 2nd Motorized Divisions were headquartered in Baghdad and created out of the former Commando Division and the Public Order Division. The 3rd Federal Police Division, with its headquarters in

, collapsed in the ISIS 2014 Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014), Northern Iraq offensive by 9 June. The 4th Division was headquartered in Basra. Some reinforcing units, such as the 9th Brigade, 4th Federal Police Division, also withered once deployed to the front lines. * ''Supporting forces'': Remaining supporting organisations, primarily the Department of Border Enforcement (tasked with securing Iraq's borders and ports of entry) and the Iraqi Prison Service. The

Facilities Protection Service The Facilities Protection Service is an Iraqi paramilitary force tasked with the fixed site protection of Iraqi Government buildings, facilities, and personnel. The FPS includes Oil, Electricity Police and Port Security. It works for all Iraqi gov ...

protects buildings owned by the Iraqi government.

Uniforms

The Iraqi Police Service uniform consists of a long-sleeved, light-blue shirt with a blue

brassard A brassard or armlet is an armband or piece of cloth or other material worn around the upper arm; the term typically refers to an item of uniform worn as part of military uniform or by police or other uniformed persons. Unit, role, rank b ...

on the left arm with an embroidered Iraqi flag and "Iraqi Police" embossed in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, black or light-blue trousers or blue combat trousers similar to those of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. They wear a dark-blue

baseball cap A baseball cap is a type of soft hat with a rounded crown and a stiff bill projecting in front. The front of the hat typically displays a design or a logo (historically, usually only a sports team, namely a baseball team, or names of relevant c ...

with "POLICE" in white letters or body armour and a

PASGT helmet Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops (PASGT, pronounced ) is a combat helmet and ballistic vest that was used by the United States Armed Forces, United States military from the early 1980s until the mid-2000s, when the helmet and vest were s ...

. Federal Police wear a black-and-blue camouflage uniform similar to the U.S.

Army Combat Uniform The Army Combat Uniform (ACU) is the current combat uniform worn by the United States Army, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Space Force. Within U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force, it is referred to as the OCP (Operational Camouflage Pattern) Uniform ...

Universal Camouflage Pattern, which includes a baseball cap, body armour and PASGT helmet. FP uniforms are issued when an officer has completed training; officers not yet trained wear a variety of uniforms, including woodland camouflage. FP officers are organised into brigades which cover geographic areas. Rank insignia for the IP is nearly identical to that of the Iraqi Army, except that the shoulder boards are usually dark blue.

Ranks

Officers ranks and ranks of NCOs and constables are the same that of Iraqi army, from highest to lowest, with symbol on epaulette, as below: *

Major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

(لواء) : one silver eagle and two silver crossed swords *

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. ...

(عميد) : one silver eagle and three silver stars *

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

(عقيد) : one silver eagle and two silver stars *

Lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colon ...

(مقدم) : one silver eagle and one silver star *

Major Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicato ...

(رائد) : one silver eagle *

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

(نقيب) : three silver stars *

First lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a ...

(ملازم اول) : two silver stars *

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

(ملازم) : one silver star

Controversy

Iraqi police officer with Tabuk sniper rifle

The Iraqi Police has faced a number of problems since it was reformed by the

after the fall of

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

. It became the target of fighters from inside and outside Iraq; thousands of officers have been killed by gunfire and bombings by Iraqi insurgents, foreign terrorists and, in some cases,

friendly fire In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy/hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while en ...

from Coalition troops. An estimated 4,250 Iraqi police officers were killed from January 2005 and 4 March 2006. Due to high unemployment in Iraq, many young Iraqi men have volunteered to join the police forces. A number of recruits have been killed by

suicide bombers A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

and suicide

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...

s whilst queueing at police stations. The IP has also been infiltrated by insurgents, who use access to privileged information, training and weapons for their own motives. Many

police station A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, a ...

s have been attacked, blown up, had weapons stolen from them and have been occupied by opponents of the Iraqi government; as a result, many police officers have abandoned their posts. As of October 7, 2006, 12,000 Iraqi Police deserted and 4,000 were killed. On 17 August 2016, a market owner was killed by a police officer after a brawl began when the market owner "refused to back his vehicle" in Baghdad.

Sharia

The

Baathist Ba'athism, also stylized as Baathism, (; ar, البعثية ' , from ' , meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection"Hans Wehr''Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (4th ed.), page 80) is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation a ...

regime began to increase the role of Islam in government during the early 1990s, with required religious education in the schools,

honor killing An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of ...

s and religious committees to punish those deemed in violation of traditional mores (such as adultery, fornication and homosexuality). The Iraqi constitution stipulates Islam as the official religion, enacted laws must conform to

sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

and provisions for civil rights and liberties are in accordance with public mores. Many members of the Iraqi police and Interior Ministry have ties to the Islamic fundamentalist Badr Brigade, which have been given leeway to punish those suspected of immorality. In

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

, police guarding a local park reportedly made no attempt to stop an armed group from severely beating two women and shooting a male Iraqi friend of theirs to death.

Iraqi government

The Iraqi government has been accused of using (or allowing) the police and other groups to carry out sectarian killings and kidnappings of

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a dis ...

Iraqis. In December 2005, US troops found 625 inmates held in "very overcrowded" conditions in a Baghdad Interior Ministry building. Twelve of the prisoners reportedly had signs of torture and malnutrition. The story gave credence to the accusations, sowing further distrust of the police force. A report into the findings at the building was promised by

Iraqi president The president of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Con ...

Ibrahim Jaafari at the end of December 2005, but as of 4 May 2006 no report was issued. The

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...

released a 2006

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

report accusing the Iraqi police of widespread atrocities. In October of that year, the Iraqi government dismantled a police brigade with connections to sectarian

death squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are f ...

s. The dismantled brigade was transferred to a US base for retraining. Other police brigades will be investigated for links to death squads.

Strength

The number of police is difficult to estimate, since local police chiefs may exaggerate their numbers to obtain increased funding for their stations and people drift in and out of service. Although the total Ministry of Interior payroll exceeds 300,000, many are off-duty at any given time. As of mid-2007, the National Police Forces employed about 25,000 officers. The number is somewhat misleading, because one-third to one-half of the NP are on leave at any given time.

Deaths

Iraqi Interior Minister

Jawad al-Bulani Jawad al-Bulani ( ar, جواد البولاني) (also spelled Al-Bolani; born in 1960) served as the Interior Minister of Iraq within the Council of Ministers under Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from 8 June 2006 to 21 December 2010. Bula ...

announced that as of December 24, 2005, 12,000 police officers in Iraq died in the line of duty since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Transition teams

Large-scale operations were conducted by coalition forces to assist in policing and train the Iraqi Police (IP) and security forces. Police transition teams (PTTs) are US military-police squads deployed to Iraqi Police stations. The teams conduct joint patrols with the IP, share station defense and gather station information and

counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or ...

intelligence. The joint patrols of the PTTs have helped curb violence, increasing respect for Iraq's police force. These duties were later performed by

United States Air Force Security Forces The United States Air Force Security Forces (SF) are the ground combat force and military police service of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force. USAF Security Forces (SF) were formerly known as Military Police (MP), Air Police (AP), and Se ...

members. An International Police Liaison Officer (IPLO), an experienced US police officer, accompanied most of the transition teams to aid post-academy training of the IP. National Police Transition Teams (NPTT) are 11-man

military transition team A Military Transition Team or Transition Team, commonly abbreviated as MiTT, in the context of the United States Military, is a 10 – 15 soldier team that trains foreign national and local security forces. The term has been used in the "War on Ter ...

s embedded in Iraqi Police units at the battalion, brigade, division and

corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was first named as such in 1805. The size of a corps varies great ...

levels. These teams are supplied by the US Army and the US Marine Corps. Like the PTTs, each team is assisted by an IPLO and one to six local interpreters.

Equipment

Members of the Iraqi Police use the

Glock Glock is a brand of polymer- framed, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H. The firearm entered Austrian military and police service by 1982 after it was ...

19 and

HS2000 The HS2000 (''Hrvatski Samokres'', ) is a series of semi-automatic pistols. Polymer-framed and striker-fired, the series is manufactured by HS Produkt (formerly I.M. Metal) in Karlovac, Croatia. In Europe, the pistols are marketed as the HS and ...

handgun, and may carry a

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small pellet-like spherical sub- pr ...

, Type 81, or

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms d ...

rifle on patrol. Iraqi Federal Police have also been seen using the Croatian-made HS Produkt VHS-2 bullpup carbine during military operations against ISIS in northern Iraq. For marine operations, the police are equipped with Safe Boat International 230 T-Top patrol boats.

References

External links

Iraqi Federal Police official website

- By Mathieu Deflem and Suzanne Sutphin, published in Sociological Focus, Vol. 39(4), November 2006.
Iraqi police deaths 'hit 12,000'

Fixing the Interior Ministry and Police in Iraq
USIP September 2007
PBS FRONTLINE: GANGS OF IRAQ
April 17, 2007 {{Iraqi security forces Iraqi Police