NILES — Michigan State Police Lt. Melinda Logan enrolled in Texas A&M University wanting to be an aerospace engineer and left in love with law enforcement.

Logan went from campus police dispatcher and jailer to an emergency dispatcher in Detroit to graduating the Michigan State Police’s recruitment school in 1994. For the next 25 years, she would move from post to post, roll to roll, until coming to the Niles post at 1600 Silverbrook Ave. in 2011.

On Oct. 7, she will retire as assistant post commander after spending 25 years with the Michigan State Police.

What Logan became passionate about as a campus dispatcher is what she is still passionate about now, as she begins her final shifts and packs up her office: assisting others.

“I love helping people, and I love how everything’s different every day,” she said. “Even though you may be patrolling the same freeway and making the same traffic stops for people not wearing seatbelts, every interaction with somebody is different, every single time.”

Logan’s role with the Michigan State Police became something different every few years. She moved all over Michigan, from St. Joseph to Taylor.

Each move brought a different role, from a traffic crash report teacher to Michigan International Speedway security to watching over three Detroit casinos as one of the first officers of the department’s gaming enforcement unit.

Now, she oversees the sergeants and troopers of the Niles post, which in turn oversees all of Berrien and Cass counties.

She said she likes to think of her final role with the department as a vice principal for a school.

“My job is to attend meetings to help link the state police in with other community resources, to get other resources for the troopers so that they can do their job correctly,” she said. “Then, unfortunately, there’s the discipline aspect.”

Her role has allowed her to take part in programs and organizations that ultimately changed her life. If her decision to become a campus dispatcher was her first big career education moment, then a trip to a drug addiction training summit hosted by the state police was her second.

It was 2014, and the nation was struggling with high numbers of people becoming addicted to heroin. Berrien County had some of the worst numbers in the state.

“I really didn’t have a good understanding of what addictions were,” Logan said. “At that time of my life, I thought most of them were just a choice.”

At the summit, she heard the stories of a respiratory therapist who could not find the medical resources he needed for his son addicted to heroin. She heard a presentation by a man who brought the issue of addiction to a commonsense level.

“It changed my life. It changed my outlook on addictions,” she said.

Logan left knowing that addiction was not a choice and that people affected by addiction struggled to find local resources.

She found that a swathe of resources was available for people online, but some were not trustworthy. Others were not clear on what insurance was taken or did not offer a recovery program that fit someone’s needs.

Confusing instances like these, she said, were made worse because those affected by addiction were often in a time of crisis when the search for information was made.

So, Logan and others worked to create Voice Change Hope in 2015 and Carol’s Hope in 2018.  She sits as co-chair for each.

Voice Change Hope is a Berrien County community alliance that seeks to raise awareness about opiate addiction, become a landing ground for trustworthy resources and reduce addiction stigmas. It does so through a website and on-the-ground programming.

Carol’s Hope is run through Community Health Centers and an advisory board representing different organizations. It is a 24-7 crisis intervention facility for those affected by substance use and its co-occurring disorders.

“The only thing that we struggled with in Berrien County, Cass, Van Buren was when somebody says, ‘My loved one has an addiction, and I don’t know where to go get help or guidance,’ or the person who has an addiction says, ‘Today, I think I’m ready to change my life,’” Logan said. “It’s overwhelming to try to find the help.”

Both organizations seek to end that struggle.

Logan will step down as co-chair of Voice Change Hope a few months after retirement. She plans to continue her co-chair role with Carol’s Hope.

Despite retirement, Logan hopes to take on new work. She wants to push Michigan Congress to create legislation that would allow a person in an assaultive case to testify in a closed room livestreamed to the court.

“To have to tell that story in front of an open court, for some people, is very empowering, but for most, it’s not,” she said. “I want to help them not be victims anymore.”

For now, though, Logan said she is looking forward to a family trip after retiring. She will head to Cleveland, Ohio, to see family and Memphis, Tennessee, to revisit the National Civil Rights Museum.