Portrait of a Police Officer: Senior Master Sgt. Victor Dempsey

Published May 26, 2016
By Staff Sgt. Katherine Tereyama
Joint Base MDL Public Affairs

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- On the second floor of an old maintenance hangar, tucked away in a warren of nondescript offices of stained carpet and off-white walls, sits Senior Master Sgt. Victor Dempsey, 514th Security Forces Squadron superintendent.

Among the maze, Dempsey's office is distinctive. Every spare inch of space is covered in nearly 30 years' worth of memorabilia. Nestled among plaques, shadowboxes and framed photographs, hangs an engraved wooden tablet. Titled "A Policeman's Prayer," it begins: "Dear Lord, be with me on my beat/This day and every day..."

July 13, 1986 was the first of such days for Dempsey; the day he joined the U.S. Air Force as a security forces reservist. One year later, he also joined the ranks of the New York City Police Department.

"The finest people I ever met were in uniform - some form or another, whether it's a police uniform or a military uniform, firefighter - they're the finest people," Dempsey said.

Dempsey is the quintessential NYPD cop - from his thick New York accent to his mustache. He joined the NYPD at a time when the city had some of the highest crime rates in history. In his first year working midnight shift at a Bronx precinct, they saw 89 homicides in an area that measured less than a square mile.

Dempsey says it taught him patience and the ability to listen.

"You come into people's lives at a very bad time," he said. "When there's a death, an accident, a crime committed. No matter if the person is the victim or the perpetrator, someone still loves them."

Dempsey worked in the Bronx, Manhattan and Harlem throughout his twenty-year career as a patrol officer in the NYPD. One weekend a month, he would come down to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst to fulfill his role as an Air Force Reserve security forces team member.

During 9/11, he fulfilled both.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Dempsey was an off-duty NYPD officer. When the plane crashed into the first tower, and he watched the scene play out on that morning's news, he said to his wife "That was no accident."

He headed into the city before the recall came down and crossed the Hudson Bridge from Queens as the first tower fell. The detective from his precinct who was directing traffic across the bridge said to him, "It looks like we're going to war!"

For the next week, he and his unit patrolled the streets of New York acting as a reassuring presence to the millions of New Yorkers shaken by the tragic events.

"It was odd to get flagged down, people asking where they could donate blood, how they could help," he said.

From his precinct headquarters, where he used to see the towering appearance of the World Trade Center directly down 8th Avenue, he now saw only smoke.

"The fire wasn't put out for over a year, so there was that constant reminder."

A short while later, he received the call his wife had been dreading. With four children and his youngest a newborn, he looked over at his wife as he was called down to support the security forces unit at then-McGuire Air Force Base, and she cried.

He was gone for three months.

While here, his unit integrated with Air Force, Army, active duty, Reserve and Guard members. A master sergeant, he served at the flight chief for the midnight shift.

"I was giving out notifications at guard mount," he recalled. "It was something I had to do in the police department, but there it was "You have to go to court." Here I was giving out notifications to young kids to go places - who knows where, who knows how long?"

He continued his dual service until he retired as a sergeant from the NYPD in 2007 after twenty years on the force.

"I've done twenty years in service of the city of New York, and here I am doing thirty years in service to my country," he said. "I've never had any regrets. I think being a cop is a good profession, an honorable profession. I loved going to work. As a young kid, my friends would call me and say 'Can't you take off? Can't you come out tonight?' And I would lie to them! 'No they won't let me take off,' because I wanted to go to work."

His enthusiasm emanates from every word of his story. It is apparent that he loves the job and he loves the people. The evidence of it is in each photo throughout his office. Grinning group photos abound - some in his blue NYPD uniform, others in desert camouflage in Iraq.

"In the police department, you have a steady partner," he recalled. "You work with them, sometimes for years. You know their family, they know your family, you know all about him. You're bonded. In a sense, you're a lot closer with him than you are with your wife, or your husband.

"I've been [at the 514th SFS] thirty years," he continued. "I've seen these guys one weekend a month for twenty years, some of them. These guys come in as young kids, join the police department, get married, have kids. And its snapshots in time, it's not like with your day-to-day job where you see the same people every day. It's a different kind of camaraderie than in the police department, but just as strong. They're like my family here."

"Grant that each weary block I walk/May ease a brother's way./Let me be kindly to the old/And to the young be strong./But let me triumph over those/Whose acts are cruel or wrong," the prayer hanging on Dempsey's wall continues.

From patrolling the streets of New York, to helping displaced persons of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Dempsey has lived up to that calling.