The crowd filled the Sparks City Council Chambers and spilled out the doors Monday as the city officially welcomed Steven Asher as Sparks’ new police chief.

Asher was sworn in before the Sparks City Council Monday, officially beginning his career as the head of 170 sworn and non-sworn officers.

The room was filled with friends, family, colleagues and students who he had coached, comforted and sometime butted heads with through a 23-year career with the Sparks Police Department.

“I’ve worked with Steve for many years,” Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick said. “We don’t always see eye to eye but we always work it out.”

Mingled with standing ovations and commendations from Nevada’s congressional representatives, Asher received a gift very similar to the one he received during his first year on the police force.

Retired officers Roy O’Connell and Mark Finch handed Asher his first flat badge as a sworn officer 23 years ago. On Monday, they presented him with a flat badge that, this time, said “Police Chief” on it.

When Asher started with the SPD, he remembered being able to leave your door unlocked and go borrow something from a neighbor.

Now after climbing the ranks to Sparks’ new police chief, he said his goal is to reduce the fear that people may feel in their homes and communities.

“You are always reactive (in this business),” Asher said. “You call and we come. But I don’t want you to have to call and in order to do that … I have to be creative.”

The Sparks native said he hit the ground at a sprint Monday as he focuses on reassessing the department’s funding and promoting its community image.

“The next six months we will be looking at alternative funding options,” Asher said, mentioning grants and taxes. “We are taking a look at what we currently have and seeing how we can work with that … It’s asking how creative and innovative can we be in times of economic hardship.”

The SPD was told in September that due to budget constraints, the detectives division would need to increase its work load, overtime expenditures would be reduced, software updates would be delayed and employee meals would be suspended.

Asher said that another one of his top priorities as police chief will be to create stronger bonds between the department and the community by sending representatives to community advisory board and neighborhood watch meetings.

“We want the public’s trust,” Asher said. “That is huge … we have had two open houses in my years here and that is a shame. In order for the community to know us and trust us … we need to be more transparent.”

Asher has much to look back on as he begins his tenure as Sparks Police Chief.

The 49-year-old Sparks native got his first taste of public safety work when he jumped from the classroom at Wooster High School to a job as an Animal Control officer. Then, after a suggestion from former Sparks Fire Department Chief Tom Clewell, Asher decided to pursue a career with the Sparks Police Department as a reserve officer.

However, in order to do that, Asher needed the high school diploma that eluded him years earlier. In 1985, Asher went back to school and got his general education degree and in 1986 he started his life with the Sparks Police Department when he was hired as a sergeant.

Asher coached soccer at Reed High School for 22 years, just recently retiring to fulfill his responsibilities as police chief. He said that in his years of coaching he has always promoted the value of education.

“I try to make sure that my kids understand that they need to (get their education),” Asher said, “because you never know where you are going to be.”

In 2000, Asher received his associate’s degree in criminal justice and, just last week, received his bachelor’s degree in Business and Homeland Security from North Central University.

Asher also graduated from the FBI National Academy in 2007.

“We are very proud,” said his mother, Carole Schulz, as she left the council chambers. “He has worked very hard the whole time.”

Asher is the father of four children and has been married to Kelly Asher for 21 years.