As the eighth member of his family to be in law enforcement, Scotty Hodges has known for a long time that he wanted to be a police officer.
“My dad was a retired police officer, and we moved to a retirement community in Hot Springs,” Hodges said. “That’s what got to me to Arkansas.”
Hodges would drive back and forth to work in Little Rock from Hot Springs, passing Benton during his daily commute.
“It seemed like a very nice community, and I always wanted to be a police officer. I just never took that step until ’96,” Hodges said.
Twenty-one years later, Hodges is the new chief of police for the Benton Police Department, effective Aug. 14. Former Chief of Police Kirk Lane was hired as the new Arkansas drug director in July.
“Scotty is a consummate professional in the law enforcement field, and I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to offer him the position of chief of police for the city of Benton,” Benton Mayor David Mattingly said in a statement. “I am truly pleased that he has accepted, and I know he will do a great job.”
Hodges, who served as assistant chief under Lane, said becoming chief of police has always been a dream of his.
“I never thought it would be possible in Benton,” Hodges said. “As far as the officers here, we’ve never had a chief from within at this department.”
Hodges has served in every division of the department, as well as every rank. According to a statement released by the department, he was named Officer of the Year in 1999 and was recipient of the 2012 Benton Police Department Leadership Award.
He was promoted to assistant police chief in January 2016.
“That was a newly formed position,” Hodges said. “Kirk Lane has always said that his goal is to develop the people under him to take over upon his departure.
“That should really be every person’s goal — to develop the people under them to continue to move forward when you leave.
“The last thing you want is for that department to fail because you didn’t teach those under you.”
Having served at the department for so long, Hodges doesn’t feel it is necessary to make any drastic changes right away.
“There are going to be some changes, as anyone would expect,” Hodges said. “We are going to change our organizational structure slightly by initializing a third captain position, where we currently only have two.
“It is something we have needed for some time.”
Hodges said he is still in the learning phase.
“I want to get my feet wet,” Hodges said. “I want to learn all that I can before I start making any what I call ‘drastic changes.’
“The department runs too fluid for me to come in and start making a bunch of changes.”
As assistant chief, Hodges said, he implemented a lot of changes, and when needed, he enforced them.
“I have been a part of the whole plan for the past four or five years,” he said. “Not taking any credit away from Lane, but I was a part of that — of his ideas and changes.
“He had great ideas, and I had some. It was a like a team. We do function here like a team.”
While not necessarily a drastic change, the department — which currently has 64 officers on staff — is undergoing a few renovations, as it has outgrown the building that was constructed in 1997. Hodges said the department took over a building in town to help store some things, and also took over the Benton Utilities office.
“And we made that our chief administration offices,” he said. “We still have a few more renovations to do to get rooms prepared and ready for things.”
He said the department is also working diligently on a policy manual, and he hopes to have it completed by the end of the year.
“It is basically policies and procedures — what we do, what officers are expected to do and not do,” Hodges said. “It is mainly guidelines for officers and our employees.”
Hodges is originally from Bossier City, Louisiana, but he said he calls Benton home now.
“I’m not going anywhere,” said Hodges, who lives with his wife, Holly, and their five children just outside Benton.
Hodges received a Bachelor of Arts degree in criminal justice from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2007 and graduated from the FBI National Academy in 2010. It was at UALR where he met Kevin Russell, now a captain in the Benton Police Department.
“[Hodges] and I went to class together at UALR, appropriately taking a criminal-justice class,” said Russell, who oversees the Police Department’s patrol and communications division.
“He would attend class in uniform, and one night, I approached him after class.We just started talking about police work, and he said, ‘You’ve got a lot of questions; you sound interested. Why don’t you come do a ride-along?’” Russell said.
“A week or two later, I came in that night to do the ride-along, but I didn’t know there was a clothing requirement. He had to take me to my house so I could change into long pants,” Russell said of Hodges. “That was my first taste of law enforcement.”
Russell, who has been with the department for 18 years, said Hodges is one of the reasons he is where he is today in law enforcement.
“At the time, I didn’t know which path I wanted to take,” Russell said. “Once I did that first ride-along and saw what the job entailed, I was pretty well hooked.”
Russell said Hodges will do a good job as chief.
“He has risen through the ranks over the years and has worked in every single division in the department,” Russell said. “Therefore, it gives him an excellent grasp and pulse on what is going on in the department.
“He is also very in touch with what is going on in the community. He is very committed to community-oriented policing.”
Hodges said that while relationships between communities and police departments have been strained all over the country, he feels it is not as bad in Benton.
“I guess everybody has that, but I feel we have a good relationship with our community,” Hodges said. “It comes from a long line of having good relations with and going to events with the community.
“We are very transparent. The community knows we are going to do the right thing. We have a good trust from the community, and it hasn’t always been there.
“I hope to continue to build that and for it to continue to grow.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.