Police Presence Most Important

Typical day…days were long. I worked 73 days straight over there before I took a day off. You get up at you know, five or six in the morning. If the shower was working it was working, if it wasn’t, it wasn’t. You get up and go on. Get in your vehicle and drive to work and sometimes you had meetings to go to. There were meetings on every Tuesdays and Thursdays at the headquarters. We were attached to the Russian base. The Russian Army provided security for us. It was mainly just getting out into the communities and making sure they knew we were there and making sure that they knew if they wanted to tell us anything, they could tell us. There was, I guess, body retrieval on the go over there because we were there shortly after the war and when people would come in and tell us things we’d have to go investigate it and see what was there, bring in whatever resources we needed. Yeah, we tried to get…because when the Serbian Army and the police force were pushed out of there, there was a void. There was nothing there. There were no teachers, there were no police, there were no civil servants because all these were of Serb descent. So, there was this massive void left there. So the international community came in and tried to fill it. There were a fair bit of revenge killings on the go. And we just… you can’t do it all. But you sort of rely on your German police colleagues, who were excellent. They’re sort of into that situation anyway, they’re close by. Just a typical day of trying to get everything going, getting the police car’s four-wheel-drive out into the communities, into the hills and just making sure that everything’s going good. That’s all, just more of a presence and letting them know that we’re here if you want to come talk to us, we’re here. And provide training at the same time for the Kosovo cadets so that they can take over eventually. Interviewer: So that was the general purpose for you going to Kosovo, was to kind of fill that void and get things back and running? Yeah. Yep. I think at one point there was like three thousand police officers there from all over the world. They had to just keep coming because there was no police. There was nothing.

Officer Hickey details the situation that existed and how the presence of police officers was a major part in bringing stability to the local population.

Bill Hickey

Mr. Bill Hickey was born July 5, 1956 in a small town outside of St., John’s, Newfoundland. As a young boy, Mr. Hickey always has great involvement with sports and recreation. Realizing his desire for community work, Mr. Hickey held a career as a Police Officer and as well at a very young age joined the Reserves in role as chief warrant officer having opportunities to deploy to different areas of the world. Together with this Police and Reservist career, Mr. Hickey expresses his great sense of pride for his achievements and opportunities throughout his years in service. After 34.5 years of police service, Mr. Hickey has retired and now resides in St. John’s Newfoundland with his family. As part of the delegation of Newfoundland Veterans, Mr. Hickey accepted the opportunity as part of the 100th Anniversary of Battles of Somme and Beaumont-Hamel to travel overseas to commemorate this special event.