Opened earlier this summer, and modelled on Japan's little local police stations, Columbia's koban is an attempt to prevent crime by tackling some of the things that cause it: broken families, children who stop going to school, the failure of communities to help people at the end of their tether.
One big promise came from Japan, which has agreed to pay the salary of Afghanistan's national police for the next six months, a "huge" commitment, Holbrooke said.