As a police rookie he was in his twenties doing all the dirty work in the streets of Emmen, later in life as a spokesperson, the press and the public hung on his every word. But after almost fifty years of service, it will end next Friday for Ernest Zinsmeyer (64).
As an agent he was on the street for 22 years, he held the spokesmanship for a little longer: 25 consecutive years.
Zinsmeyer’s strength may have been in the calmness he radiated all along. Both as a point of contact for the press, for his colleagues and the people on the street. “The busier and more hectic it is, the calmer I become,” he explains in the Radio Drenthe program Cassata.
As a 17-year-old boy, he was still looking for further courses where he could register. His neighbor – a cop who, in Zinsmeyer’s eyes, had a decent track record – made Zinsmeyer’s police heart beat for the first time. And so the seed was planted, he reported to the training as a ‘broekie’.
Watch and listen to the conversation with Zinsmeyer in Cassata (article continues below the video):