A former Sergeant of the Bermuda Police Service will now be protecting the United Nation?s mission in Kosovo.

Bermudian Jeff Baron, worked in the Police service for ten years and moved up the ranks before he began looking at opportunities to expand his horizons.

Next week he will leave for Kosovo where he will be a security manager at the UN?s headquarters .

Over two years ago he met security officers working for the UN in Africa and realised that with his training it was something he could become involved in.

After talking with the officers he was ?bit by the bug? and began the arduous application process. It involved online applications, telephone interviews, flying to New York and more telephone interviews. On December 15, 2006 he was told that he had a job in Kosovo.

For the next six months he will be living in Kosovo?s capital Pristina. Kosovo has been under UN administration since 1999. The UN are in charge of basic civilian administrative functions, facilitating a political process to determine Kosovo?s future status and maintaining civil law and order, among other things.

Mr. Baron said: ?From the moment I started the application process my interest in working for the UN grew and grew. Once I was offered the position I knew I had to go.

?It is not something I celebrated, going to Kosovo, because I know there will be tough times - what I am looking forward to is coming back with more experience in dealing with public disorder.

?The level of public disorder there is unlike anything we have here in Bermuda, thankfully.?

Mr. Baron was a Sergeant in the Public Order, Officer Safety and Fire Arms Department and was one of the officers in charge of training the entire police force to use Captor spray.

He said: ?The training I have received here over the years enabled me to apply for the job but it was still a long process. It took two years of me calling people and showing I was really interested in working for the UN.

?When I was told I was short listed for a job in Kosovo I read as much as I could about the geo-political issues but obviously there is still so much more I will need to learn about the region.

?That is going to be the biggest thing for me in the first few weeks. I have the training and the tactical knowledge to do the job, the important part will be applying that to the area I am working in.?

Eleven months ago a hand grenade exploded near the UN mission Mr. Baron will be working at, one person was injured in the attack.

While he acknowledged that he would spend the next six months in a far more dangerous job than he is used to, he said it was not something he had dwelled on.

He said: ?The fact that I will get the chance to be there helping the UN and a country?s democratic process is an amazing opportunity. I want to make an impact on the community, no matter how small the impact is.?

The UN security officers Mr. Baron will be managing are armed 24 hours a day, which is something he said he will have to get used to.

He said: ?The situation is such where they have to be armed all the time and that forces me to think about different tactical options and the results of them.

?That will be a large part of my professional growth.?

His family and friends are very supportive, he said, because they know it was something he worked towards for years.

He said: ?It?s odd once I was told I had the job, I was given 30 days to pack up my life and move across the world. I don?t even know where I am going to be living, when I get there I will have to sort out an apartment.

?I?ve spent the last few weeks wrapping things up here and saying good bye to people. ?Even though I am only going for six months I know I am going to miss lots of things about Bermuda while I am there.

?I am sure many of the people I deal with will never have met anyone from Bermuda and I am looking forward to telling them about my home.?

One of the high points of the job will be working with a diverse group of people, he said. He is looking forward to his team being comprised of officers from a variety of countries.

Some of his duties while in Kosovo will include operational planning - both spontaneous and pre-planned - risk assessments, arms training, public order training and tactical advice.

His initial contract is six months and Mr. Baron said, at the moment, he sees himself returning to Bermuda with the experience he has gained.