Steve Collier couldn’t dream 15 years ago that he would be sitting behind the desk of the Police Chief.

“I started from the ground up. When I started, I never thought that I would be a chief, but it’s just the way that doors opened for me,” Collier said. 

It’s a mini miracle that the veteran police officer overcame serious injury to put a new shine on the badge of the Benton Police Department.

Having lived in Benton since 1991, Collier ran a used car business when he joined the reserve officers in 2006. By 2010, he had sold the business and was a full-time officer.  

“I grew up providing a service to people and I had a natural ability to put puzzles together. That intuition is what made me a good detective and it clicked for me,” he said.

When he started at the department, he was a workaholic. He dove into the service, and it wasn’t until 2015 that he started to slow down. 

Then, in 2018, his love of drag racing ironically forced him to slow way down. 

Collier was a semi-professional drag racer when he got into a wreck during a race in Topeka, Kansas. His vehicle was moving at more than 200 miles per hour when he had a “blowover,” where it went fully vertical before slamming back down on the asphalt and skidding backward along the track. 

This left Collier with several broken vertebrae, and he was bedridden for almost nine months. He was transported home, given care in a rehab facility, and his wife nursed him along for four months until he was able to move freely.

Despite almost being paralyzed and immobilized by a medical brace, Collier knew he had to get back to work. He was still recuperating from his injury when word came that the police chief was retiring. That’s when he knew he needed to step up for the community.

“This is my home, and I have a vested interest in it. Even though I was still hurting, I knew I needed to do what was best for this town,” Collier said.

After he was elected in 2020, he saw a department that needed to modernize. He noted that any new police chief is going to put their stamp on the department, but he began a revamp of the town’s police department by streamlining daily operations and updating equipment regularly used by officers.

He started with upgrading the town’s evidence room and kept moving forward. He took lessons learned from fellow police chiefs across Louisiana to expand training, offer counseling for officers, improve safety protocols, and start a new non-lethal weapons training program. 

With funds from the American Rescue Act, Collier updated the department’s vehicles with four new units, in-car cameras, and body cameras for officers. He has also worked with the Town of Benton to secure more funding for his department, which he has used to increase pay for the town’s officers.

“Our biggest challenge is turnover. With inflation, it’s tough and money goes quick, so I sought to increase our budget to improve pay for our officers,” he said. “All the improvements I made are geared towards the safety of the officers and the community.”

Collier pointed out that crime in the town was on the decline under Benton’s previous chief, and the department has managed to continue that trend. He says crime is relatively low with speeding being the major issue he hears about from residents. 

“It’s quiet and peaceful,” Collier said. “That’s important for growth because people want a nice town to live in and I feel like we are there. I get a lot of positive feedback from the community about the job we’re doing.”

While his job is about “controlling the ship” and continuing to push the department forward, Collier is not pushing it on the racetrack anymore. Although he still races, he’s focused more on catching speeders instead of being one.

“I built a new car and still drag race, but I’ve slowed down and am doing it more recreationally. I’m spending time keeping things (in the department) running smooth and focusing on catching other people speeding,” he laughed.