After 40 years of distinguished service with NSW Police, homicide squad commander Danny Doherty has today retired.
The Detective Superintendent was farewelled by his police colleagues with a guard of honour.
In a sit-down interview with 9News, Doherty reflected on his time investigating the most heinous of crimes.
Asked why he was now choosing to retire, he likened it to the end of a sporting career.
“I suppose its a sporting analogy, you want to go when you are still hitting runs, scoring tries and coaching up a team going ok…and locking up bad guys,” he said.
Once a trainee teacher, he spent three years in the army before joining the force in 1985.
Doherty rose quickly through the ranks of robbery and serious crime before moving to the homicide squad in 2019.
This Sunday will mark the first anniversary of Westfield Bondi Junction tragedy.
Asked if he remembers the phone call notifying him of the attack, he said “yeah, absolutely.”
“It went from bad to worse,” he said.
Six weeks earlier, there was the shooting murder of two young men in Paddington, allegedly by a police officer.
“To the credit of the investigators it was just another person who had to be tracked and charged for something that was horrific,” he said.
To unplug and escape, Doherty spends his free time playing music.
”I love playing music and playing guitar and singing songs. I come from a music family.”
When a gang war exploded in 2022, police retaliated with force.
“That galvanised us all, we started locking up the crooks and the shooting stopped,” he said.
And that’s what drives his detectives to solve the crime and bring some closure to the people left behind.
“Its a sense of pride, its also a sense you have done your job well done, because you actually give answers to the family,” Doherty said.
“I was outraged by it,” he said of the 2022 killing.
“How can you gun down two women on a street who were just about to go out,” he said.
He had time for one last appeal to solve the killing.
“Who knows, someone out there might have some information that can help us.”
Doherty said he would miss the job.
“I have a sense of mixed emotions about being proud of your achievements but being willing to let go,” he said.
Doherty will remain in the police family.
His wife Jayne, who he met at crime scene, is now the commander of the NSW sex crime squad.
