‘Punisher’ hands KPOC Unit to the ‘Fighting Deuce’

Pvt. Alyxandra McChesney
1st Advise and Assist Task Force Public Affairs
1st Infantry Division, U.S. Division-North

CONTINGENCY OPERATING STATION WARRIOR, Iraq –

The “Punishers” of 512th Military Police Company, based out of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., said goodbye to Kirkuk City police chiefs and introduced their U.S. forces replacements, the “Fighting Deuce” Soldiers of 272nd Military Police Company, from Fort Polk, La., at the Kirkuk Police Headquarters in Kirkuk, Iraq, Feb. 2.

During the 512th MP Company’s 12-month deployment to Kirkuk, Iraq, military police Soldiers built a new law enforcement program, known as the Kirkuk Provincial Organized Crime Unit.

“KPOC-U is a program we came up with to advise and assist the investigating officers of Kirkuk to enhance their capabilities to collect evidence to help the Iraqi Police in convicting criminals,” said Sgt. 1st Class Robert Cannon, platoon sergeant, 512th MP Company, a native of Jacksonville, Ill.

KPOC-U combined resources that already existed in the Kirkuk Police force, consolidating a wide-range of personnel and assets under one command to fight an increasingly organized criminal enterprise within the province.

The program enabled Kirkuk Police teams to capture suspects, find and collect evidence, and use that evidence to convict suspects under the Iraqi Rule of Law.

Cannon explained that much of the KPOC-U’s experience derived from on-the-job-training.

Before the unit was created, U.S. Army Military Police, civilian police advisers, a criminal investigator from each of the eight districts of Kirkuk, and two criminal investigators from Kirkuk’s Anti-Crime Unit, attended a 30-day class led by Iraqi Police.

IPs conducted the training to help U.S. forces understand Iraqi Police procedures during criminal investigations, to include DNA collection, forensic evidence identification, crime scene security and integrity, and Iraqi Law.

Members of the new KPOC-U began their first mission and operation, June 15, 2010, two days after graduating the class.

When Iraqis reported a crime, Soldiers of 512th MP Company accompanied IP units to advise, assist and mentor their Iraqi counterparts through the process of collecting evidence, gathering finger prints from suspects, and calling in the appropriate unit to collect evidence at the scene of the crime to help build the prosecutor’s case.

“The KPOC-U program has shown a great success in decreasing the crime rate in the city of Kirkuk,” said Cannon. “When we first started the program, we were going out on two missions or crime scenes a day to collect criminal evidence,” said Cannon. “Now we go on very few crime scene missions—only a few per week.

“I believe our mission here is complete on our end,” he said. “It feels great to hand over the task to another unit to finish what we started.”

Sgt. 1st Class Calvin Newman, platoon sergeant, 272nd MP Company, explained how Iraq has changed for the better in the past few years.

Newman, who hails from Clinton, La., said he has seen a marked improvement in security from his first tours in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“We are excited to be here, and we want to continue with the KPOC-U program, but most of all, we want to keep the relationship 512th (MP Company) has built,” said Newman.