The Afghan National Police (ANP) is the single law enforcement agency in Afghanistan.  After the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001, however, the nation had no functional police. Warlords and their armed militias quickly filled the security vacuum resulting from the lack of central governance, and the Afghan Ministry of Interior was unable to secure remote provinces because it had no control over these disparate police structures.

  

The Afghan National Police force is still in development, with training provided by U.S. armed forces and other government security agencies in partnership with several NATO states. By 2005, there were police training programs in all of Afghanistan's provinces, and as of March 2010, there were 102,138 ANP officers. Current plans call for an ANP force of 134,000 by October 2011. Military strategists estimate the proper ratio of police to people in peacetime is around 1officer per 400 citizens. When the ANP is fully manned, the ratio in Afghanistan will be 1 officer to 216 citizens, which, although not ideal, represents a major improvement over the security situation under the Taliban.

 

The implementation of nation wide training has brought significant security reforms, particularly at the higher staff levels in the Ministry of the Interior.  In addition, there are now police mentors throughout the country, and the ANP has received a substantial pay increase.  Unfortunately, as the ANP force has grown and improved, the insurgency has continued and intensified.  As a result, the number of ANP officers killed in the line of duty has increased sharply, with over 1,600 lost in 2008 - 2009, and nearly 1300 more in 2010, more than 100 per month.