From the Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES — Some 70 Camp Pendleton Marines have been patrolling the streets of Los Angeles’ toughest neighborhoods with the LAPD to learn skills they hope to apply in Afghanistan.
The Marines say learning to work like a cop on a beat will help them better track the Taliban, build relationships with Afghans leery of foreign troops and make them better teachers as they try to professionalize an Afghan police force beset by corruption.
The weeklong exercise — unbeknownst to the public — involved Marines dressed in jeans and T-shirts observing drugs busts, witnessing prostitution arrests and even following a murder case. It was the largest group of Marines to embed with the city’s officers.