Law enforcement in Afghanistan

Plans call for Afghanistan to have a national police force of up to 80,000. Although the police officially are responsible for maintaining civil order, in some cases local and regional military commanders continue to exercise control in the hinterland. Police have been accused of improper treatment and detention of prisoners. In 2003 the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force, now under command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was extended and expanded beyond the Kabul area. However, in some areas unoccupied by those forces, local militias maintain control. In many areas, crimes have gone uninvestigated because of insufficient police and/or communications. Troops of the Afghan National Army, in the past, had been sent to quell fighting in some northern regions lacking police protection.

In 2007 the US military began supervising most police development, in conjunction with the US Department of state, as well as coalition partners. This includes supervising recruiting, training, and operations. US military officers, primarily from the Army national guard, as well as other branches, began mentoring police commanders at every level of command. This police mentoring initiative is headquartered in Camp Phoenix as part of CJTF Phoenix.Text used in this cited section originally came from: [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Afghanistan.pdf Afghanistan (Feb 2005) profile] from the Library of Congress Country Studies project.]

Historical secret police organizations

*Khedamat-e Etelea'at-e Dawlati (KHAD)

Notes

References