Colonel Richard H. Collins was named Superintendent of the Ohio State Highway Patrol on April 10, 2007, by Henry Guzmán, director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety. Colonel Collins is a 28-year veteran of the Patrol, and on April 20, 2007, was sworn in as the 15th Patrol superintendent since the organization was founded in 1933.

Colonel Collins joined the Patrol in 1978 as a cadet dispatcher assigned to the Marion post. He entered training in May 1980 as a member of the 108th Academy Class and received his commission the following September. As a trooper he served at the Mansfield and Marion posts, earning a Certificate of Recognition in 1984, and Post Trooper of the Year honors at Marion in 1986. He also earned the Patrol’s Ace Award for excellence in auto larceny enforcement in 1986.

Promoted to sergeant in 1988, Colonel Collins served as an assistant commander at Piqua. He received his first command assignment in 1992, when he was promoted to lieutenant and assigned to Findlay as the post commander. He was elevated to the rank of staff lieutenant in 1995, serving two years at General Headquarters in Columbus before transferring to Bucyrus as assistant district commander in 1997.

In November 2000, Colonel Collins was promoted to captain and assumed command of the Patrol’s 12-county Findlay district.

A native of Marion, Colonel Collins graduated from Ridgedale High School in 1977, and holds a bachelor’s degree in management from Bluffton College, and a master’s degree in criminology from Tiffin University. He and his wife Brenda, a Patrol staff lieutenant assigned to the Office of Recruitment and Training, reside in Hilliard. He has two adult sons, Alex and Richard, and one granddaughter, Cecilia.