Brandon Twp.- After more than 30 years as a police officer, Dennis Finney will retire in a few weeks, feeling fortunate to go out still enjoying his job.
‘I wanted to be a cop, I liked my job, I still like my job,? said the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office deputy. ‘I’m lucky I get to retire when I still like what I do.?
Not an easy feat in a profession that is often dangerous and filled with sad and horrific experiences. Finney has had his share of those? working as a detective in Rochester Hills on murder cases that included a son who killed his mother, and a man who shot to death another man during Mass.
Perhaps most traumatic was his work as a K-9 handler at the accident site of Northwest Flight 255, which crashed while taking off from Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Aug. 16, 1987, killing 148 passengers, 6 crewmembers, and two motorists. Only one passenger, 4-year-old Cecilia Cichan, survived.
‘We lost several deputies who were too traumatized to continue as police officers,? Finney recalled. ‘That was ugly. My wife says maybe the nightmares will stop now that I’m retired.?
A former EMS volunteer, Finney became a police officer from a desire to give back to the community. He began his career with the Ionia County Sheriff’s Office 31 years ago, but spent less than a year there before joining the OCSO.
Besides his stints as a detective and K-9 handler, Finney has served with the Marine division as a diver and as a patrol officer in several communities, including about 13-14 years in Brandon.
The work has sometimes had a very rewarding ending? such as the time he found, with the help of his K-9 partner, an elderly man who had wandered away from an assisted living facility in 100-degree heat. The man survived.
His job has had funny moments, too. He remembers with a laugh the time he responded to a home where the alarm system was sounding and found a woman running on her treadmill, wearing nothing but a set of headphones. She never heard the deputies come in and was startled so bad she wound up nude on the floor.
Finney notes most of his calls in the township were burglaries or family disputes.
‘Ten percent of the population is 90 percent of our work,? he said. ‘I’ve arrested people and gone on canoeing trips with them a few days later. Most of the time, it’s for stuff they should know better. They fail to think things through.?
Finney’s last day at work will be April 19. The 57-year-old former township resident, who is married to Tiki for the past 11 years, plans to spend more time on his 34-foot sailboat in his retirement, taking a 4-5 week cruise of the Great Lakes this summer and then later taking a cruise of the inter-coastal waterway? down the Mississippi River, around Florida and the East Coast and back to Michigan. He also plans to spend more time in Virginia where he and Tiki have a second home.