The original station was so badly destroyed that the local Iraqi police had to move operations down the street to an outpost, while the original station was being rebuilt.

“Back in 2003, the Iraqi police were trying to develop. The [anti-Iraqi forces] went through and ruined the police station, and scared the [Iraqi police] into quitting,” said U.S. Army 1st Lt. Michael McCasland, battalion assistant effects coordinator, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

“We opened a station down the street called NE2 Combat Outpost back in Dec. 7, 2005 and initiated a projected to build a new station were the old one was.”

According to McCasland, they contracted the work to a local Iraqi construction company that was responsible for excavating the site and rebuilding the new station.

“The opening ceremony marked a reopening of a police station that was once destroyed and now fully manned with (Iraqi) police officers who came back to work,” said McCasland. “There are several problems in that area and a lot of [anti-Iraqi forces] activity that goes on, so I think it’s good for residents living in this neighborhood that these officers came back. It shows the insurgents that they may have degraded the [Iraqi police] capabilities for a period of time, but they can not actually destroy what the Iraqis want to have and build.”

McCasland said, the Iraqi police were under so much control from Saddam (Hussein) and they are going through a lot of trial and error right now, but they are working through their problems and they have come along way.

Rebuilding a police force is not an easy step for coalition forces and it will not happen immediately. It will take time to train and teach these officers to be the first line defense against an insurgency that would like to see them fail.

“They eventually have to be responsible for their own country and city,” said McCasland. “They made a lot of great strides, considering last year there were no Iraqi police, because [anti-Iraqi forces] had scared them into quitting.

"The key now is for them to create a better relationship with the Iraqi Army, and they have used a tremendous amount of effort to make that relationship better.”