Donald Young, a 49-year-old retired New York City policeman, teaches Iraqi Police recruits some basic skills they otherwise would have to learn on their own.

Young's temporary charges in Iraq are 166 new paramilitary policemen from villages around the market town of Muqdadiyah in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad. None has prior police work experience, and few have served in the Iraqi army. Because of government priorities and capabilities, most will wait months before receiving formal training.

According to the U.S. State Department, there are close to 300,000 IPs throughout Iraq. The total number of trained IPs is about 186,000. From last November until the end of August, the police academy in Baghdad trained 2,013 policemen.

"You have to give them something in the meantime," he said. "The police in Iraq take the brunt of (terrorist) attacks. They take the knocks but haven't been supported enough" in comparison to the Iraqi army. "They're in the backseat" on training and support," he said.

"The police here aren't like the police in the States or in Europe. They really are a paramilitary force. �� But I truly believe we are all law enforcement brothers."

Young, a security contractor for the U.S.-based firm MPRI and attached to the U.S. Army's 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, began his training sessions at the behest of squadron commander Lt. Col. Rod Coffey, who for months has been trying to build local citizen confidence in the IPs by helping weed out elements connected to extremist militias, those who engage in criminal activities or those whose behavior exacerbates sectarian tensions in the area.

About 60 percent of Diyala province's people are Arab Sunnis, but after they boycotted elections in 2005 the Shiites have controlled the provincial government and its agencies. The majority of police, under the authority of the Ministry of Interior of the Shiite-dominated national government, are Shiite, and many are believed to be -- or have been -- members of Shiite militias that fought fierce battles in 2006-2007 against al-Qaida and its sympathizers after the terrorists destroyed a Shiite shrine in Samara and nearly set off a sectarian civil war in the country.

Young's approach to the sectarian divide is to repeatedly stress professionalism.

"You're policemen," he told a gathering of recruits at a U.S. combat post near the town of Himbus. "You have to act professional, you have to put whatever feelings you may have towards other groups out of your mind on the job."

"We hear they (the police) have been infiltrated (by extremists)," he said later. "I think they're being weeded out daily, but it's still a problem. You have to build pride in themselves and in their units so the decent ones will step forward and turn in the bad ones."

Young's classes begin the same way, with a slideshow presentation of images taken at and around Ground Zero seven years ago. He does so to gain immediate attention, and also to stress common purpose.

"I wanted you to see these pictures," he tells recruits. "I was there. I had friends killed.

"This is when America was attacked; this is why we are here. Some say Iraq had nothing to do with this, and that can be argued, but the bottom line is we're fighting the same kind of enemy.

"We're a team. We have to be united," he said through an interpreter.

Young's teachings are basic street skills in a presentation and demonstration format -- how to disarm a person, how to arrest a person safely, the telltale signs of a suicide vest bomber, how not to disturb crime-scene evidence, how much force to use and how to work with the courts.

"If you're trying to arrest a man and he starts fighting you with his fists, is it OK to shoot him?" he asked a class.

"Yes" was the near unanimous reply from the recruits. "No, no, no," Young said with a look of shock on his face. "Your force has to be proportionate."

"On what side of you do you put the suspect on when leading him away?" he later asked while using a policeman to demonstrate his point. "Not the side you're carrying your weapon on," he answered himself. "He may be cuffed, but he could still try to grab your weapon."

No grand theories, other than professionalism -- just street-smart tips to help policemen return home safe to their families at night.

Young spent 20 years with the New York City police. He was just 100 meters from the World Trade Center when its North Tower collapsed. In the aftermath of Sept. 11 he spent months with other officers sifting through debris at Ground Zero. In February 2002 he retired and moved into security work as a contractor. His first stop was Asia, where he performed duties on contract for the U.S. State Department. Two years followed in the Congo, where he handled security in and around the international airport in Kinshasa for the United Nations and also trained police there on his own time. Next stop, Afghanistan as a police trainer, and now Iraq as a security specialist attached to the Army.

"I had other opportunities at home after Afghanistan, but when I saw that helping train local police would help our troops in the field, I had to keep doing it. If I can help one soldier get home sooner, get home safe -- no matter how goofy that sounds -- then it's been worthwhile."

Young lives on Forward Operating Base Normandy on the outskirts of Muqdadiyah. His quarters are as bare as any soldier's, the food's the same, the amenities and distractions just as bleak, and the aches at the end of the day after wearing more than 50 pounds of body armor in 120 degree Fahrenheit heat are no different.

He won't discuss his normal security duties for the regiment on the base, but he says the IP training sessions he has started are dear to his heart. Once a policeman, always a policeman.

"Some of the information was very good for me," said 22-year-old Shakr Mahmoud Kadham Ali al-Bayati. "I had had a lot of questions on my mind, and this helped."

The recruit had been a policeman for 30 days. He was previously a neighborhood security volunteer for Sons of Iraq (formerly known as Concerned Local Citizens) in his home village.

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