NOTABLE POLICE CAREER: SUPT. DEMPSEY RETIRES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22877, 22 February 1949, Page 6

NOTABLE POLICE CAREER: SUPT. DEMPSEY RETIRES

The announcement of the retirement of Superintendent J. A. Dempsey from the New Zealand Police Force has prompted many a pleasant memory of his service in this district, where for four years he was stationed with the rank of sergeant. To most Gisborne people he is best remembered as Sergeant Dempsey, an officer whose hardbitten aspects were completely belied by his good-nature and general citizenship. While in Gisborne between 1924 and 1928 Superintendent Dempsey won a remarkable reputation for handling crowds of people on all occasions. He wielded an iron hand under a velvet glove to get results such as few police officers achieve, and he left behind him' a sense of warm appreciation in official and private circles. From Gisborne he went to Hastings on promotion, and it was not long before a transfer to Wellington put him back in an environment where his special qualities found more definite emoloyment. He joined the force in 1908 and his first station was at Dunedin. Later he was moved to Wellington, and there came in close contact with publicorder work during the 1913 shipping strike. The story is told that while on duty he became the target of abuse from one militant striker who offered the final insult. When Constable Dempsey walked away, the onlooking crowd suffered a shock, but when he returned shortly afterward stripped of his uniform jacket and inqujred for the heckler, the shock registered upon the latter. He disappeared quietly in the crowd, and his voice was not heard again. Incidents such as this were rare enough in the experience of the well-set-up young constable, but they served to invest him with respect among those he had to deal with as “the law.” Once he achieved the rank of seniorsergeant his further promotions were fairly rapid, and he received tfie annointment of suoerintendent in 1948. He was selected to accompany the Duke of Gloucester on his tour of New Zealand, and subsequently was awarded the medal of the Royal Victorian Order.