For years Town of Hamburg Police Captain A. (Arthur) Daniel Shea has been the go-to expert on fingerprinting that many law enforcement agencies have come to rely on.

That all comes to an end on Friday, Jan. 23 when Shea walks out of the office after 34 years of service and heads off into the sunset of retirement.

Shea, 61, has been an integral part of the investigative team at the Town of Hamburg Police Department, where he is in charge of the Detective Bureau.

A South Buffalo native, Shea is very proud of his heritage and believes it helped with his ability to be a good police officer.

“I am South Buffalo born and bred,” he said. “I learned the street moves growing up there and I hung out with the guys. This wound up working well for me later, relating to the people. City living is a good background for being a police officer.”

A graduate of South Park High School, he was drafted by the U.S. Army when he was 19 1/2 and was sent to Vietnam.

After serving his tour of duty, Shea came back to the area, got married to Linda Whitted ( his wife of 37 years) and went to work at General Motors.

“I knew I wanted to go into police work, so I took the tests,” Shea said.

He said he looked at the Erie County Sheriff’s Deputies, New York State Police Department and the Town of Hamburg Police.

“I turned down going to the State Police because I really wanted to work at the town. Then when (Hamburg’s) Police Chief Robert Williams called to tell me I was hired, I almost passed out,” said Shea.

Shea went to the Police Academy, which lasted only five weeks and then returned to Hamburg for on the job training in March 1975.

“I remember one of the first times I was on patrol by myself, the siren started blaring away on the patrol car and I couldn’t find the switch to turn it off.

“Well, dispatch starts calling me that they are getting complaints about a siren blaring in the neighborhood. Now I really didn’t want to answer the radio because of course the siren is blasting away, but you know I have to answer it. So when I do answer they very calmly tell me the switch to turn it off is under the seat. Boy, did I hear about that one for awhile.”
For eight years he worked as a patrol officer, often teaming up with the late Joe LaRosa, who served as his partner for seven years.

“He was the best, we solved a lot of cases together and we had more fun together,” said Shea.
As Shea gained experience, he moved up in the ranks.

In 1983 he became detective, in 1990 he was promoted to lieutenant, in 1999 he became captain and in 2001 he was promoted to captain in charge of the detective bureau, the position he has held up to his retirement.

Along the way Shea has been involved in trying to solve many cases, ranging from burglaries to murder.

It was through perseverance and dedication that they were able to finally solve the 1977 murder of Renee Bahleda.

“I always thought Norbert Lepsch, who did handyman work, was the person who did it. It wasn’t until 1994 while I was interrogating him for some other criminal activities, that he finally admitted to killing her.”

“Shea has a head for the job,” said retired Hamburg Police Chief Joseph Coggins. “He can connect the dots on events, pull it all together and find the solution. He is by far the best investigator in our area.”
But not all cases are solved.

“It still bothers me that we didn’t get the guy who killed Anjanette Piotrowski back in October 1994,”
said Shea. “I’m sure I know who did it, but we didn’t have enough proof and he is now living in Florida.

If we had the tools then we have now I bet he’d be in jail.”

It is that passion to find the proof to get the truth that has Shea as one of only six people in Western New York that is a certified latent fingerprint expert.

“He is one of the best and it will be a big loss for us when he retires,” said Linda Tarnawskyj, the Statewide Automated Fingerprint Identification System site manager. “I have worked with Captain Shea for over 19 years and he has a great eye for being able to match up fingerprints to get a suspect.

“He is the person that many other departments turn to help them identify a fingerprint from a crime scene,” said Tarnawskyj.

“I got into this because years ago I lifted a print from a crime scene and took it to the ‘experts’ at the time,” said Shea. “Well, I could see that it was a good print and matched this suspect.

“Well the experts couldn’t agree and I got a bit aggravated, so I went to the FBI and they agreed with me.”

It seemed the FBI were impressed with Shea’s ability with fingerprinting and they suggested he attend the fingerprinting school in Virginia at no cost.

That was the beginning of Shea’s many years of training in the field.

Shea’s fingerprint expertise helped solve a series of baffling church robberies in 1990.

“In May he brought us a fingerprint from a window of a Hamburg church which had been robbed,” said Tarnawskyj.

“We had only been on line since January and he was a regular user of the system. He was able to come up with a suspect, get him to confess to the church burglary and solved about 20 other burglaries in the process.

“He put SAFIS on the map with that case,” Tarnawskyj said.

“The caliber of his work is very, very high,” said retired Evans Police Chief Samuel DeJohn. “We worked together for 20 years, especially when I was in charge of the Detective Bureau in Evans. I don’t think we went a day without talking and comparing notes.

“All that knowledge and experience, how do you replace that? You don’t and it will be an immense loss not only to Hamburg but to very other department that came to depend on his expertise,” DeJohn said.

Shea’s expertise is currently being shared with students at Hilbert College as “Professor” Shea teaches fingerprinting techniques and tools.

Along with being a fingerprint expert, there are other facets to Shea’s job.

“He is one of the most compassionate men around,” said Town of Hamburg Police Captain Stephen Mikac, who has worked with Shea for many years.

“When you need help or something needs special attention, he is the man who will lead you in the right direction. He is the go-to-guy in the major cases and he is one of the best interrogators in Western New York,” Mikac said.

According to Mikac though it doesn’t always end with the arrest of the suspect.

“He works with the families to try and get help for the kids who are in trouble,” said Mikac. “He keeps in touch, follows up on them and encourages them to stay on the straight and narrow.”

“I always tell people to never give up on their children,” said Shea, who has a 26-year-old son, Daniel Shea. “You have to keep working on them because in more cases than not they will turn around and you do make a difference.”

Some of the more important successes in Shea’s career are not just limited to the high profile arrests but also include some of the more personal aspects of the job.

Lives that have been turned around and the many thank-you notes and letters he has received from people whose lives have improved because of his encouragement.

“He was a joy to work with,” said Coggins. “He really improved the quality of life for the people here in Hamburg and made the town a safer place to live.”

“I’m going to miss him, not only as a colleague, but as a friend,” said Mikac.

Shea is looking forward to retirement but admits he will miss working with his colleagues.

“I am really going to miss police work and the people I have worked with all these years,” Shea said.

“This is not the end though. I plan on doing more work in the fingerprint field and may become a consultant for various law enforcement agencies. I’m not sure what the future will bring, but it will be good.”

As a result, merchants that don’t want to deal with additional tax collection are dumping their New York-based affiliates.

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Amazon, will collect the tax but it is also suing New York state for introducing a law that it deems unconstitutional. Go get them Amazon!