Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Officer now working with new canine Niko
BELLA VISTA — Officer Nick Collins and his canine partner Niko, the newest additions to the canine unit, bring the Bella Vista Police Department up to three canines and handlers, allowing for a dog on every shift.
Officer Matt Hixson said starting at the beginning of the year, officer Michael Jaro and canine Rip will be on nights, Hixson and canine Huk will be on evenings and Collins and Niko will be on days. He said all three dogs are dual- purpose, meaning they are certified to find narcotics, but they can also apprehend suspects, clear buildings and track suspects.
Collins said he has been a police officer for almost three years, and before that he was a dispatcher for two years. He said before he joined the Police Department he was working for a local corporation but he wanted to do something more meaningful.
“I wanted to help people. I wanted to feel like what I did mattered to the community,” he said.
As a joke, someone sent him information that the Police Department was hiring. He had never thought about law enforcement as a career before, but it struck a chord.
“Law enforcement was everything I felt like I wanted to do. It just made sense. It checked all the boxes,” he said.
He applied to be a police officer and did not get the job right away, but friends encouraged him to try to get his foot in the door. So he applied to be a dispatcher. While he held that role, he began helping with the training of the canines. It was then that he had the idea he might like to be a canine officer in the future.
“It was fun for me, and I kept doing it because I wanted our dogs to be able to perform when there was an actual live scenario. It created a new passion,” he said.
Collins transitioned from being a dispatcher to being an officer, and early this September he met Niko. Niko is an almost 2-year-old Belgian Malinois. Collins traveled to the kennel in Harmony, N.C., where Niko was trained, to receive four weeks of training with Niko. He spent that time bonding with the dog and learning to give commands and to read Niko’s behaviors.
“We came back, and he’s been with me ever since,” he said. “They’re working dogs — high energy, high drive. They need to be mentally stimulated to direct that energy in a positive way.”
He said he and Niko are constantly doing obedience work or detection work, even while off-duty. Bite work is a little more difficult, because a second person is needed to wear the bite sleeve, but they can settle for working with toys, he said. Niko lives with him, and they have been together since they met in September.
“There’s a bond there that’s hard to describe. It’s pretty awesome,” Collins said.
“I wanted to help people. I wanted to feel like what I did mattered to the community.
— Nick Collins, Bella Vista police officer