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AFP reporters watched people converge on the Palestine Hotel where US officers and media are housed after foreign radio stations broadcast a call for qualified people to come forward.
Among them was a first group of seven Iraqi police officers.
Led by Colonel Ahmad Abdulrazzak Said wearing his olive green uniform, six other officers arrived in civilian dress.
"Why did you come in uniform?" one of the other policeman asked the senior officier.
"It is more noble; I came here to do my job," the colonel replied.
US marines, fearing further suicide attacks, searched him at the entrance to the hotel, where he told reporters he had come to help end the looting which has plagued Baghdad since US forces won control of the capital to cheers Wednesday.
The public mood has been precarious since Baghdad fell with only a whimper of resistance, as fear and anger met the breakdown in security.
Iraqi merchant Hassan Farhid summed up sentiments: "If the Americans don't do anything, we will turn against them."
Iraqi police officers, out in force in the capital until Baghdad fell, vanished with the appearance of the US troops, and nearly all the city's police stations have been ransacked.
Other Iraqis also converged on the city centre hotel asking to use journalists' satellite phones to call relatives abroad after the collapse of communications facilities.
Telephone exchanges were among the targets of US-British warplanes and missiles which began blasting away at the infrastructure on March 20.
The rush outside the hotel caused the first city traffic jam in three weeks amid a din of honking car horns on Al-Fardus Square, lending an air of normal times to the capital.
Traffic appeared to be returning across the city, but any flow was slowed by checkpoints set up by US forces and the curiosity of drivers who enjoyed inspecting the troops in full combat gear beside their armoured vehicles.
Public services, in particular water and electricity, have been out for many days.
And shops remained shut in downtown Baghdad, notably on normally bustling Saadun Avenue. The price of gasoline shot from five cents to one US dollar a liter before gas stations also stopped serving motorists.
Some pharmacies were open on Rashid Street, but most premises kept their shutters down. Armed shopowners stood guard outside.
"It's as if we were in a big ship in stormy seas. We'll be sinking soon," said shopowner Salah Jamir.
The United States is to send nearly 1,200 police consultants, advisors and judicial experts to Iraq in the coming weeks to help establish security in the aftermath of the war, the State Department said Friday.
For the moment, US troops are stationed in key buildings but there are very few of them on the streets of the capital.
Marine Colonel Peter Zarcone, tasked with maintaining civil order, told the BBC late Friday: "We are trying to get the Baghdad police to come back to work and do their jobs.
"We've been trying to contact police officials. We've put out word over the airwaves to come and see us. We've talked to approximately three individuals today," added Zarcone, who was speaking from Baghdad.
Meanwhile, new finds by US troops offered bizarre and chilling glimpses into the regime under President Saddam Hussein.
Soldiers found a large cache of thousands of light arms in a central Baghdad residence, including gold-plated rifles inscribed as gifts from Saddam Hussein, AFP correspondents reported.
"It is definitely a major discovery," said a US officer, who asked not to be identified, in the posh Al-Harithiya neighborhood.
US forces have also opened up to journalists a feared Baghdad prison and torture chamber that served as a small component in a massive complex that once housed the Iraqi secret police.
It was described by US military authorities as command and control for the entire country under the formal title of Department for General Security.
"It was home to the secret police and Iraqi military intelligence and every time an Iraqi comes within distance they feel sick," said Adba Alz of the Free Iraq Forces (FIF).
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