New Harder-to-Counterfeit Iraqi Police Uniforms
In an effort to deal with the problem of imposters in fake uniforms, Iraqi policemen now have a new uniform:
Police Colonel Abdul-Munim Jassim explained why the new uniform would be difficult for criminals to fake.
“The Americans take a photo of the policeman together with the number of the uniform. If found elsewhere, it will immediately be recognised as stolen,” he said.
Bolani promised tough measures against anyone caught counterfeiting or trading in the uniforms and praised his officers, telling them their work had begun to turn back the tide of violence around Iraq.
I’m sure these things help, but I don’t see what kind of difference it will make to a normal citizen faced with someone in a police uniform breaking down his door at night. Or when gunmen dressed in police uniforms execute the brother of Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi.
roy • October 11, 2006 1:06 PM
This plan might help detect infiltration into police armories and equipment storage areas being quietly raided for arms, equipment, and intelligence, but even that’s a stretch. Ordinarily, at any ‘cop shop’ no cops will challenge the identity of anyone who looks like a cop.
In the changeover period, some cops will have the new uniforms, and some the old, so the plan does not begin to take effect until new uniforms vastly outnumber the old.
I doubt the scheme will have any impact on the hit squads. Real cops do not show ID. Their confident dominant attitude suffices to identifiy them. The trouble is, a hit squad will have that same attitude.
Where the scheme fails the worst is in making it impossible for citizens, or police, to distinguish the police from the assassins when they’re in plainclothes.
I think the uniform change is just to pretend the government is doing something.