Comments on: Cop Tech Key to Iraq Fight?

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 23:11:23 +0000

> –Electricy: if the power doesn’t stay on,
> what good are all of the computers going
> to be?
Field linguists (field = jungle etc.) work all the time in areas where electric power is on-and-off or non-existent. They power their laptops and other electronic gear with solar panels. I’ll bet there’s lots of solar power in Iraq :-).

By: Sentinel

Sentinel — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 16:28:25 +0000

There are a number of pre-requisites to technology being usefull to the Iraqi police:
–Electricy: if the power doesn’t stay on, what good are all of the computers going to be?
–Literacy: both basic literacy and computer literacy
–Competence and integrity: as the previous poster mentioned, these are lacking too.
But then again, it can turn chicken and egg. How can we get consistent electricy without an effective policy force? How can we weed out corrupt cops without effective traceability of actions?

By: US Marine

US Marine — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 02:44:30 +0000

Actually there is a system in place that is getting a lot of use, the BATS. Its a huge database, I’ve used it and it works — in my AO we detained 16 high value targets just based off of the system. And no the Iraqi police can’t have it, they are all pretty much dirty cops.
http://www.sodaro.com/Plone/bat_news