The Detective

The detective
It was Walter Dinnie who brought an organised system of criminal identification to New Zealand.
The experienced London detective was headhunted from England by the New Zealand Government looking for someone to run the police force.
Walter Dinnie was born on December 26, 1850, in Aberdeenshire in Scotland to Robert Dinnie and Celia Hay.  He received a grammar school education where he excelled in athletics and his first job was as a bank clerk before taking a clerking job with the West Riding of Yorkshire constabulary.
It led to him joining the London metropolitan police force earning promotion after promotion until he became a detective before going on to the Criminal Investigation branch.
He achieved fame with a number of high profile cases - including the arrest of international jewel thief William “Harry the valet” Johnson who stole £30,000 from the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland and Charles Wells - a gambler and fraudster who was called the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo.
Dinnie had begun setting up a fingerprint register in 1901 but in 1903 he was approached by the NZ Government to be the Commissioner of Police.
Dinnie accepted and retired from New Scotland Yard and boarded the SS Ruapehu with his wife Fredericka, their five sons and niece Isabella Smith.
He began putting reforms in place.  One of them was organising fingerprint and mug shot databases.  The mug shots are not like we think today.  Criminals faced the camera and had both their hands in full view - as an extra form of identification.
It included samples of handwriting along with details of known associates and methods of operating.
He put his son, Edmund, who was trained in modern methods, into the new unit and a year later Edmund was in charge.  Edmund also founded the Police Museum.
Both were lauded for their success but it didn’t last.  Walter became the object of attack in the media for corruption in the police force, especially after Dunedin police were found to be burgling the premises they were supposed to be protecting.
It resulted in a royal commission.  It ultimately said the police were not corrupt but confidence in Walter continued to drop after discipline problems and a bungled murder investigation.
Despite the commission finding there was no issue with police, Walter was seen as incompetent.  He attacked back but in 1909 his resignation was announced.  He denied resigning but it was too late.
He moved to Auckland and took up a position as president of the Tokerau District Maori Land Board, despite his lack of experience.  It didn’t last long either, the position ceased to exist in 1914 and Walter settled in Wellington as a private detective.
He died on May 7, 1923.
It now appears that he was hounded from office by a combination of the New Zealand Truth who had opposed someone being brought from England for a New Zealand job and by a member of Parliament and a magistrate who headed the commission.
Whether that is true or just a set of circumstances, Walter brought more modern forensic detective methods to New Zealand.
Walter is buried at Karori Cemetery.​