(OBA®) -- There’s a new chief in town -- well, he’s been in town since 1990 when he moved here from the Birmingham area. The promotion looks good on Interim Police Chief Steve Brown who had served previously as Assistant Chief under Joe Fierro.

Brown began his law enforcement career in the mid 1980s when he became a law enforcement explorer at age 19. He said only one of his family members was a policeman, but he had worked in a sporting goods store during his teenage years, and the firearms section attracted lots of policemen.

“I always wanted to be a policeman,” he recalled. “I knew that’s what I wanted to do -- I felt like that’s what I was called to do.”

Brown moved up the chain to become a radio operator and corrections officer. Moving to Baldwin County in 1990 to be close to his parents, he worked at the Gulf Shores Police Department and Robertsdale Police Department, and as a reserve officer and part-time communications officer at the Orange Beach Police Department. He graduated from the Police Academy at Faulkner in 1995.

Brown came on full time with the Orange Beach Police Department in the patrol division under Chief Robert Vincent in April of 1995. He was promoted to Corporal and entered the investigations unit, then worked in the drug task force of Baldwin County for a year and a half. He returned to criminal investigations and was promoted to Sergeant.