DOHAN: As the clock strikes midnight tonight (March 1, 2025) it will begin the 4th year of Will Benny serving as Dothan Police Chief.
On the retirement of Steve Parrish on March 1, 2021, the Honorable Alabama Supreme Court Justice Brad Mendheim administered the Oath of Office to Will Benny as Dothan’s Top Cop.
Today, with 30 years of service with the Dothan Police Department, beginning as a Corrections Officer, rising through the ranks, Will Benny leads a police force of about 208 sworn police officers, plus a large support staff, corrections staff, 911 Center Communications Staff, Animal Control Staff, the City of Dothan – Houston County Communications District Board and Radio Shop staff. And I am probably missing some.
The training center ground was broken under Steve Parrish’s tenure as Dothan Police Chief. With the Wiregrass Training Center being reality today, Chief Will Benny has worked to enhance and be proactive in the training of law enforcement officers. With Dothan having been told NO before on a Regional Police Academy at the Wiregrass Training Center by the State of Alabama APOST, Chief Benny would not accept that answer. So he went to work and developed a proactive plan. Today, the City of Dothan Wiregrass Training Center has its own Regional Police Academy. To date, this Dothan Police Academy has graduated a significant number of law enforcement officers for the City of Dothan and surrounding agencies.
Chief Will Benny fought to increase the Dothan Police force. In the three years Chief Benny has led the department, some 181 law enforcement officers rose to 208. Each year the force is to increase, and to my memory, within the next years another 5 additional officers are expected to join the team. Chief Benny has fought to get the starting pay and the pay for those already employed up so the City of Dothan is very competitive in recruitment and retention of law enforcement officers and staff. During his tenure he has not only cared and fought for the officers on the street, but those in all divisions and support areas.
Chief Benny will be quick to tell you this could only be accomplished with a supportive City Manager, Mayor and Associate Commissioners. They have all been very supportive when he presents a detailed plan and the benefits of that plan.
Chief Will Benny is very technologically-minded in growing the department’s technology. A lot of technological advances have been made within the department to assist the officers in combatting crime. Most of those RSN will not disclose, but we have witnessed some of those advances. Chief Benny is always looking at what can he do to better assist the officers of the department in their service and protection of the citizens and guests of Dothan. And Chief Benny is always mindful of his decisions and how those decisions affect the lowest in rank to the top of the rank of the department. He has cut a lot of bureaucratic red tape that someone in government came up with that was burdensome and not really serving a useful purpose. Chief Benny even got Dothan a “ghetto bird” as some call it – but a partnership with Wiregrass Aviation Support Program helicopter that asists Dothan Police Department in the performance of their job.
You do not see Chief Will Benny out front beating his chest about “look what I am doing.” He very quietly goes about the management of the department. His command staff, Major and Captains, are always working on different projects. Those projects are designed to serve the citizens and increase the safety of the citizens and the men and women who serve and place their lives on the line. Chief Will Benny takes very personally when someone assaults one of his officers and always wants each one of them to go home safe each day. Chief Benny personally handwrites birthday cards, addresses them and sends them to the officers. When he knows of something special their children do, he sends a personal letter to their family members in recognition of the special achievement.
Chief Benny does not want recognition. He just wants to put bad guys in jail and keep his team safe. He is very proud of the men and women of the department and their dedicated work in fighting crime. This weekend was an example of the department’s skill: the solving of a missing person, determining it was a murder, developing the suspect quickly, and the arrest of the suspect, the husband, as being responsible for the murder.
It is not unusual to see Chief Benny come into Patrol Division briefings. And he walks in, sits down next to the officers, listening to the briefing and interacting with the officers.
A lot of other things to include Dothan getting, once again, a Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences Lab in Dothan. Having had one years ago, Chief Benny and Sheriff Valenza recognized the long waits to lab analysis and the need for the drug lab. Ironically Dothan got one under “daddy” Mayor Alfred Saliba and now under “son” Mayor Mark Saliba Dothan is once again getting a Forensic Lab.
Congratulations as you begin your fourth year as Chief of Police for the City of Dothan. Thank you for your love of Dothan and passion for good law enforcement and the protection of the men and women of Dothan Alabama to work, live and play.
