When U.S. Army Maj. Daniel E. Fricke visited police stations in Iraq this year, he was surprised by what he didn't see -- flak jackets, gun belts, flashlights and batons.
As a sergeant with the Los Angeles School Police Department, which serves the Los Angeles Unified School District's 1,042 campuses, he knows how difficult it is to conduct police work even under the best circumstances.
But the police departments in northern Iraq that he helped train were severely under-equipped, Fricke said.
So he called his boss in Los Angeles, Deputy Chief Lawrence Manion, who asked the school district's 270 police officers to donate their used-but-still-serviceable equipment to the fledgling Iraqi police forces.
Many officers chipped in, donating not only gear, but $1,800 in cash to cover shipping expenses.
A month later, thousands of dollars in spare bulletproof vests, helmets, batons and print kits to dust crime scenes were on their way to the Irbil Police Department in northern Iraq, where Fricke trained newly sworn officers.
"It was stuff that mainly the officers had that they no longer used," Fricke said.
Most of it, he said, was "older stuff" that had been stored inside the officers' training room. Some of the bulletproof vests might have expired, he said, but "most of the stuff still has a shelf life, something that can stop a bullet, and is better than not having anything at all."
The Irbil Police Department has about 15,000 officers, serving roughly 1.2 million people, he said.
"I couldn't make it," Fricke said of the delivery. "I was out in a different region of Iraq. But I got an e-mail, and they were very excited."
Although the United States is sending large shipments of weapons and materials -- including machine guns, body armor, assault rifles, binoculars and computers -- to the Iraqi Army, National Guard and police forces, the military often receives priority, Fricke said.
Meantime, Iraqi police have little to work with.
"We contributed what we could take from our supplies," Manion said. "We had five large boxes, 70 pounds apiece.
"They were filled with leather gear, gas containers, belt holders, eye protection, even patches with our department's name on them. We wanted them to know where their equipment came from."
Fricke said he and Manion want the school police department to adopt the Irbil department and establish an officer exchange program.
