The truest testament to retired Nahant Police Chief Robert C. Dwyer’s leadership is the praise accorded Dwyer by the man who succeeded him.
“I mimicked his work ethic,” said Chief Timothy Furlong.
Dwyer was perhaps the only person surprised to find police officers from departments around the North Shore, along with state troopers, attending the Town Hall ceremony last Friday that saw him hand the chief’s badge to Furlong.
His law enforcement colleagues — anyone who knows Dwyer — would describe him as the epitome of a police chief. Lowkey and even keeled in his demeanor, Dwyer knew his department from the ground up with his perspective on law enforcement informed by 30 years in policing.
His knowledge of Nahant and familiarity with residents allowed him to grasp the multifaceted skills police officers must acquire and maintain to do their job. Police uphold the law, but they respond to calls that also require them to be social workers and youth counselors.
Dwyer and Furlong worked together on the Nahant Police overnight shift where Furlong said he watched Dwyer work and learned from the best. Furlong left Nahant to join the Lynn Police Department until his night-shift workmate convinced him to return to the Nahant department.
Dwyer is the latest in a string of local police chiefs to retire, including Swampscott’s Ronald Madigan, who retired in July. Veteran law enforcers are leaving their jobs and taking their accumulated institutional knowledge with them at a time when the very purpose of policing in America is under a societal microscope.
Calls for defunding police departments and sending social workers instead of police officers to response requests are growing louder across the country. The demands for transformation are surely prompting police officers to engage in self-reflection about their jobs.
Anyone who knows Bob Dwyer knows that he viewed police work, at its core, as human relations work. His hallmark as a police officer was his ability to listen to people and to respect them and, in turn, receive respect.
Dwyer leaves the Nahant Police Department, and the town, in his words, “in good hands” — they were certainly in good hands for the past 30 years.
