Kandahar Officer Course

This past week I spent a couple of days down south at our Training Centre located at Camp Nathan Smith. The photo straight above is of the "Three Amigo's" who run the place for us. Supt Vic Park from RCMP Ottawa is on the right, Insp. Pierre Landry from Montreal Police Service is in the middle and Insp. Gary Stafford from the Toronto Police Service is on the left. Three absolutely outstanding guys who are doing an amazing job.

The main reason I headed south was to congratulate the guys on starting up a new course at the Training centre. We have just recently started a six month ANP Officer Course which is usually held only in Kabul and this marks the first time that it is being held in Kandahar. There has always been a challenge in getting recruits from Kandahar to go to Kabul for a six month course. The recruits do not want to leave their family for such a long period of time and of course travelling from Kandahar to Kabul is very difficult. We are hoping that by holding a course in Kandahar we can attract higher quality students who will stick with it and make a career out of policing.

I have included a couple of pictures of the Centre to try and give a sense of what it is like. For security reasons I really can't post any great shots, however you can see a classroom, a small courtyard and a small area outside where exercises are held.

In the top photo I am standing with Col. Shaw of the ANP. Col Shaw has been in the ANP for 37 years and is currently assigned to the Regional Headquarters in Criminal Investigations. He is an instructor on the Investigators Course. He explained to me that the reason he was not in uniform was because he had just arrived from his home and could not wear his uniform as it is much too dangerous for him to travel through the city alone in a police uniform.

You will also see that I am wearing a jacket...it really cools down at night this time of year. It actually dips below freezing at night but still gets fairly warm during the day. Quite pleasant actually, except for all the dust of course.