Steve Evans grew up in a town with the area’s largest shopping center. The population swelled during the day and dwindled after business hours. After 46 years of watching the ebb and flow of traffic, Collinsville’s newest chief of police is eager to experience life in a more stable town.

Photo by Roger Starkey

Evans is a Fairview Heights native, a city he said is too transient to have developed the traditions of a stable community like Collinsville. “I love Fairview Heights,” Evans said. “It’s a different type of community. My wife and I are both excited to be part of a community where generations have lived in the community.”

Soon, Evans and his wife, Rhonda, will pack up the house they have lived in for 24 years and move about 10 miles north for a professional opportunity he called surreal. “I’m elated about the opportunity,” Evans said. “It’s an opportunity to be the head of an agency that is already so strong and has such good men and women in it.”

On the job, Evans first priority will be to establish relationships in the department and the community. He already has a strong relationship with many of the command staff, he said. Those relationships, and the knowledge that he is “following two very strong chiefs,” give Evans a level of comfort, he said.

“Because the agency is running so well,” Evans said, “I will be able to establish my other priorities when I am on the job.”

Evans, 49, will be leaving an agency in which he spent all but the first year of his career. In a way, he said, he feels like he grew up in the agency. His love for his current job, and the fact that he was only a few years from maxing out his pension, allowed him to be very picky about pursing his dream of becoming a police chief in the area, Evans said.

His old and new departments are very similar. They are about the same size, have similar structures and are sincere, ethical agencies, Evans said.

Away from the job, Evans and Rhonda are excited to look for a new home in Collinsville and ready to embrace some community traditions, such as the Horseradish Festival and life under the watchful eye of the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle. One tradition to which Evans needs no introduction is Kahoks basketball. As a teen, the Belleville East graduate and his father would follow area high school teams, including some very successful Kahoks squads, Evans said.

An avid bass fisherman, Evans also enjoys golf and playing the guitar. He has one daughter, Chelsea, who lives in Columbia, Mo., where she is an assistant cheerleading coach at the University of Missouri.

Evans last day with the Fairview Heights Police Department will be Nov. 26. He will start work as the Collinsville Police Chief the next day.