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me forever. Only the police officers were subjected to the medical which was obvious at
evening dinner as we gingerly took our seats.
EULEX is an armed mission, therefore I had to successfully complete a firearms course:
personal protection with a handgun, the Austrian Glock 17. I had never picked up a
firearm before and this was a critical course – fail and I would not be deployed.
T e course, held at Warwickshire Police Firearms Training Unit, was superb and
together with two colleagues, Chris Booty from Devon and Cornwall and Steve Kendall
from Avon and Somerset, I qualified. I even managed to rebuild my Glock in the dark,
under pressure from assailants, whilst my right boot was burning from an exploded
pyrotechnics device. T e smell of burning leather takes me right back.
T at is how I ended up in Kosovo.

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On 31st October 2011 I arrived in Pristina, the capital city of Europe’s youngest yet
poorest nation, Kosovo, at the start of my twelve months secondment. Personally the
timing could have been better having got married to Victoria on 21st October 2011 and
returning from our fantastic honeymoon in Malta on 29th October 2011!
Initially I shared a house with my good friend and colleague Nigel Hughes and Jason
Taylor from Sussex Police. It was ideal for me as a new arrival in a new country and in a
new role. T eir support and guidance was crucial in allowing me to settle in quickly. T is
came at a cost though: cooking, laundry and eventually chief stoker of the wood burner
became my roles. Cinderella became my name.
After a couple of months settling in I found my own apartment on the edge of the city.
Despite the development being on a seismic fault, it provided some peace and tranquillity,
if you discount the packs of feral dogs and the family in the apartment below mine whose
wood burner was plumbed into my kitchen extractor!
Frequent power cuts, intermittent water pressure, chaotic traffic, unregulated planning
and building and a complete ignorance to what red traffic lights actually mean are all
forgotten when you take the friendly welcome and genuine gratitude for what has and is
taking place.
I was deployed as a Chief Policing Advisor to the Kosovo Police Director in Pristina,
which meant that I mentored, monitored and advised the most senior police officer
and his command team across the capital city on matters such as the introduction of
community style policing, public order command, roads policing and personal leadership
and management. I was co-located in the Kosovo Police Regional Directorate.
Building trust and confidence in the Kosovo Police Service is the main priority for
its 7250 police officers and 1100 police staff. T e service was formed in 1998 under the
United Nations Mission in Kosovo and has progressed on to be a functioning national
police service but still requiring close support and advice for dealing with corruption,
political interference and how to effectively manage investigations into war crimes, organ
harvesting, corruption and inter-ethnic crimes. T e Kosovo Police Service has specialist
operations capacity including Roads Policing, Tactical Firearms and Public Order Support.
As well as this I led a team of 25 international police officers from nations including
Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Turkey, USA, Denmark, Romania, France, Germany
and Greece supported by a similar number of national staff who provided linguistic and
political advice.
Consider this for one moment: around 75% of the population is below the age of 27
10 &76; (14 6*' 5'4$+#0 '.'%6+105 years and, in one village that I visited, the oldest living male was 15 years. Yet this small
,70' community had survived the atrocities and slowly but surely is now beginning to trust the
local police.
T e welcome I received whenever I visited police stations, communities or families was
generous, humbling and rewarding. T is will stay with me.
Being a representative of the British Police and, of course, Leicestershire Police in such
a high profile and challenging environment was an honour for me and our reputation
amongst the communities of Kosovo and international policing can only be reinforced by
continued support to similar missions in the future ■