Longtime Daytona Beach Shores police chief steps down after 25 years

As police chief for the city of Daytona Beach Shores for 25 years, Stephan Dembinsky said he developed a servant's heart when it came to his job.

The 71-year-old chief retired Oct. 4 as top cop for the Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety.

At the core of serving the community is respect for people, even for the "bad ones," that officers arrest, the long-time chief said in a recent interview.

Serving the community

Dembinsky said he is confident he succeeded in his philosophy.

"I think I've done a pretty good job in making everybody that comes in the Shores understand that they're here to give customer service," Dembinsky said. "That they're not here to beat people up, they're not here to be rude to people, they're here to do a job and that job is to keep the citizens safe from the people that want to hurt them."

Colleagues, including former city manager Mike Booker, agreed Dembinsky made changes for the department elevating its professionalism while keeping the community at heart.

The "servant's heart" philosophy is part of the work Dembinsky performed converting the department into a professional operation, Booker said.

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Booker managed the city for 22 years, almost as long as Dembinsky was chief.

"It's an important part of the legacy that he leaves at the Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety," Booker said.

Accreditation and written policy

Dembinsky brought statewide recognition to the Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety through accreditation. He also implemented a "succession strategy" with the vision of training his staff to be future leaders, Booker said.

Dembinsky said that when he took over the agency in 1998, he oversaw the streamlining of the department's cross-training where officers also trained as emergency medical service providers and firefighters.

The Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety is one of two agencies in Volusia County that has police officers who are firefighters and emergency medical service providers.

The Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue has people trained as emergency medical technicians and lifeguards.

The Daytona Beach Shores department went from accreditation, to having computers, to more training for officers, and most importantly, to having written policies, Dembinsky said.

"We started writing policies and every officer was trained the same way so you knew all the policies. So, you knew when you could chase somebody, you knew when you could arrest somebody," Dembinsky said. "So, we started writing proper policies, not just memos that were sent out."

Body cameras and red dot aiming devices for officers' weapons are also accomplishments Dembinsky provided in his long career.

Booker said Dembinsky not only molded the agency's professional character by having accreditation from the Commission for Law Enforcement Accreditation, but also prepared future leadership to take over from him.

Capt. Mike Fowler, a 30-year veteran of the Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety, mentored and trained by Dembinsky will take command of the agency, Booker said.

"He took his job very seriously and he is leaving the department in good and capable hands," Booker said.

Fowler is the first in the department to take over as chief under Dembinsky's management style that incorporated succession training.

"Chief Dembinksy was a transformational leader, one who invested in his employees and helped them develop successful law enforcement careers," Fowler said. "He's made the department an employer of choice."

No easy start in policing

Booker said Dembinsky had a lot of experience in law enforcement and was a good chief for Daytona Beach Shores.

Dembinsky has been a police officer for 45 years.

Starting his career in policing was not that easy for Dembinsky, who is originally from North Manitoba, Canada. As a non-U.S. citizen, he could not be a policeman. But that did not deter him from getting a job where he could wear a uniform. He got work as corrections officer in Dade County. That was 1977.

As soon as he got his U.S. citizenship, Dembinksy attended the police academy in South Florida and started his career in law enforcement in South Miami where he worked for two years. He then joined the police department in North Miami where he worked 18 years and retired as assistant police chief.

In 1997, Dembinsky attended the Federal Bureau of Investigation's law enforcement training and research center, the FBI Academy, in Quantico, Virginia

Dembinksy's dream was to be police chief, so with the support of his wife, he applied for the post with Daytona Beach Shores.

"She knew that I wanted to be a chief," Dembinsky recalled.

He loves playing golf, diving, swimming and fishing, so when he arrived in Daytona Beach Shores in May 1998, he knew he had chosen the right place for his career.

"When I drove over the Dunlawton bridge for the first time as the chief, I looked at that beautiful ocean and I said you know what, I just lucked out into a great place."

But after 25 years working in a city he really loved, Dembinsly said "it was time to retire and let someone else take over."

Shot at, stabbed, bitten

"It went too fast," Dembinsky said, reflecting on his long lawman's career.

But he is ready to enjoy the permanent time off spending time and traveling with his wife and family, he said.

"We're gonna go to North Carolina for months and go on a couple cruises," Dembinksy said.

Or he will be telling his grandkids stories about the things that happened to him as a policeman, he said.

And he has stories.

Dembinsky said during his policing days in South Florida, he was shot at, stabbed and bitten.

In one instance, he was forced to shoot a suicide-by-cop man, who was the brother of a policeman. Fortunately, the man did not die but it was something he will never forget.

"I've been in about five different shootings, mostly other people shooting (at me)," Dembinsky said.

He was stabbed and slashed while chasing another person through an alley but the knife only cut his vest, he said.

"He was trying to kill me but I was able to take him down," Dembinsky recalled.

Then there was the biting man.

"I remember there was a guy, who was a defendant, on trial and I had walked him into the courtroom and he tried to escape," Dembinsky recalled. "He jumped on my back and he bit me and I'm fighting with this guy."

A couple officers rushed to his aid but not before the man bit him, he said.

"He climbed on me like a monkey and he was just biting me," Dembinsky said laughing. "The judge was diving under the table and it was really wild. Then a guy tells me 'Dembinksy you're bleeding.'"

'They took me in'

Dembinsky said he believes his long career is part of giving service to the United States where he came as an immigrant and succeeded as as a law enforcement officer .

"Maybe part of my reasoning for becoming a cop was that I never really paid my dues to America, that I was never drafted, and I never enlisted," Dembinsky said. "I felt like I owed something to America 'cause they took me in, like this is my chosen country."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona Beach Shores police chief retires after 25 years