Law enforcement in Afghanistan is one of three major components of the nation's criminal justice system, along with courts and corrections. The National Directorate of Security (NDS) is the domestic intelligence agency of the government of Afghanistan, which operates similar to that of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Afghan National Police, which includes the Afghan Border Police and the Afghan National Civil Order Police, is the police force of Afghanistan with jurisdiction that covers the entire 34 provinces of the country.
The Afghan Border Police (ABP) is responsible for securing and maintaining the nation's borders with neighboring states as well as all international airports within the country. The mission of the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) is to provide civil order presence patrols, prevent violent public incidents, and provide crisis and anti-terror response in urban and metropolitan environments. Like the ABP, ANCOP is also under the control of the Afghan National Police (ANP), which is under the nation's Ministry of the Interior. ANCOP is divided into five Brigades, each commanded by a Brigadier General. These brigades are stationed in Kabul, Paktia, Kandahar, Herat, and Mazar-i-Sharif.
All the law enforcement agencies of Afghanistan are set up and trained by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) states, mainly by the United States. In 2003 the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), under the command of NATO, was extended and expanded beyond the Kabul Province so that all parts of the country live by the rule of law. In some areas unoccupied by ISAF forces, local militias maintained control until they were gradually unarmed under programs that were started by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs.