MUWAQQAR -- On the road east of Amman, where the landscape eases from urban to desert and signs demarcate the distance to Baghdad, a centre is producing more Iraqi police officers than Iraq itself.
Since graduating its first class in November 2003, the Jordan International Police Training Centre (JIPTC) has prepared more than 30,000 cadets and set the curriculum for its Iraqi counterparts.
Each class of roughly 1,500 men trains for eight weeks learning basic police skills -- including firearms, first aid, and human rights. Hand-on training occurs in a mock Improvised Explosive Devices field, simulated house interiors, and obstacle courses. In the training pipeline is a functioning model of an Iraqi police station to prepare cadets for policing back home.
"In the current threat situation, we can give them the basic skills they need inside an eight-week curriculum," JIPTC Director John Mosbey told The Jordan Times.
The land is Jordanian, the funding is American, the cadets are Iraqi, and the 390 instructors and nearly 2,000 employees represent no less than 15 countries.
Yet, Mosbey told The Jordan Times: "JIPTC itself is very apolitical. One of the things we try to teach out cadets here is that [their] job and concern is to protect Iraqi citizens. We don't care what religion they are, what ethnic background they have, what educational background they have, what gender they are... a policeman's job is to protect the citizens."
With such a training facility on Jordanian soil, security is at the forefront for those going into the academy, and for those leaving. Most cadets will never leave the premises during their eight weeks at JIPTC.
"Regarding any criminal or insurgent background [with the cadets], this is a big concern to us and to the Jordanian government," explained Mosbey.
"We have 3,000 Iraqis here in this compound. We have bunkers full of ammunition and we have weapons. We are very concerned about things like that."
However, he adds, "We have never had a problem. Part of it is the screening that they are getting before they get here. Mainly it's the screening they are getting when they are here. We work from the time they get off that aeroplane until the time they get back on... we are constantly working with them directly within the cadet brigade to understand who they are, if there are people that shouldn't be there..."
Those identified likewise are sent back to Iraq before training is complete. Still, cites Mosbey, attrition at JIPTC is only 4 per cent -- including medical and disciplinary reasons -- a figure he considers low for any training institution.
"It's a concern not a problem," he said.
While declining to specify an incident, Mosbey explained that "we will find that some of these cadets, for various reasons, are not suitable to be policemen..." These cadets are subsequently removed from the academy.
Like Iraq's police force, JIPTC has had its growing pains, including a revision of the curriculum and ongoing construction of the facility in tandem with training.
One major change was switching from 75 per cent classroom time and 25 per cent hands-on training to the converse -- an essential change, according to JIPTC officials, in order to better prepare the cadets who come from varying educational backgrounds.
The men eat, sleep, train and study at JIPTC, but the distance from home for the future police officers, in addition to a career change, are obstacles to training.
"Some of the cadets come in here with feelings of trepidation," said Mosbey.
Raad, a former construction worker who arrived at JIPTC the day before he was interviewed, agreed.
But while he is aware of the safety concerns for police officers in Iraq, the security of a monthly salary allayed his other fears.
The wide-eyed and nervous new recruit admitted to The Jordan Times that the hardest part of training in Jordan was the distance from his family -- a sentiment Mosbey says is echoed throughout the academy.
"By far and away, the biggest problem that we have are cadets that some over here and are absolutely homesick."
JIPTC provides the recruits with calling cards as well as counsellors to help them adjust to life away from home -- and to a new career.
On-site sports facilities and organised tournaments serve as entertainment on the cadets' day off.
Regarding the relations between the Iraqi cadets and American instructors, Mosbey commented that there were a low number of discipline problems involving cadets and international instructors.
"It really is almost, from our standpoint, not noticeable."
He also attributes this to a decreased number of US instructors and an increased corps of Jordanian and Iraqi instructors.
Cultural sensitivity training of the instructors, according to Mosbey, is another concern.
"[It is] not done as much as we'd like..." he told The Jordan Times. "Occasionally, we find an instructor that doesn't demonstrate that they are sensitive to these cadets, we have to invite that instructor to leave..."
To mitigate problems, internationally experienced instructors are sought out.
"I think many of our instructors have become very, very attached culturally and professionally to the Jordanian staff, the Iraqi instructors, and the cadets," he added.
While the $100 million in annual operating costs may seem steep, JIPTC officials insist that, at $6,000 per graduate, the academy gets a good return on its money -- at a fraction of the cost of similar training in the US.
JIPTC coordinates the centre's activities in partnership with the Public Security Department (PSD). "I think one of the reasons for it is the incredible partnership we have built with the Jordanians. The PSD has absolutely gone far and above what would be expected of them in any normal government to government relationship. They have approached us as a true partnership with not just the United States -- because this is not a US thing -- this is a coalition effort to support the Iraqis."
Regarding its curriculum and operations, JIPTC operates under the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team in Iraq, and answers more now to the Interior Ministry, which selects the cadets for training. Administratively, the centre reports to the US Department of State (DOS) Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.
According to Mosbey, however, the DOS does not direct the requirements of the centre or the contents of the curriculum.
Once JIPTC is no longer needed to train the Iraqi police force, centre officials told The Jordan Times that under Jordanian possession, it may be used to train local and regional police forces.
The bottom line, according to Mosbey, is that "you really get a sense here that you are involved in something bigger than you are."
JIPTC resulted from a 2003 agreement between Jordan and the then- Coalition Provisional Authority. With the dissolution of the latter party, the US Department of State committed resources to the facility through 2006.
By Victoria Macchi
© Jordan Times 2006
