The Holden police lieutenant his department recently named its officer of the year wasn’t sure 12 years ago if he really wanted to be a cop. Eduardo “Eddie” Benjamin, a native of Salvador, Brazil, was happy running his martial arts business.
His now boss, Holden Police Chief Chris Greeley, was taking classes at Benjamin’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu school when there were two openings at the Brewer Police Department, where Greeley then worked. Greeley and other students who were police officers encouraged Benjamin to apply but he did nothing about it.
“One day, Chris brought in the application, gave it to me and told me to fill it out, so what else could I do?” Benjamin said. “There were two spots and 32 people had applied. I was not sure how I’d do.”
But Benjamin came in first on the physical fitness and written portions of the test. He graduated from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in 2010 and worked in Brewer until 2015, when he followed Greeley to Holden when he became police chief there.
More than a decade later, Benjamin is a key member of the Holden Police Department, which has six full-time officers including Benjamin and Greeley and two part-time officers.
In addition to his regular patrol duties, Benjamin has successfully applied for nearly $100,000 in grants for the small department, including a $60,000 grant last year that allowed the department to step up drunken and distracted driving patrols using current staff. He’s also been involved in the department’s community outreach initiatives. And he still teaches jiu-jitsu.
“Working with Eddie causes us to have an appreciation of another culture,” Greeley said. “He adds and brings so much to the department, including technical and grant writing skills.”
The state and federal grants Holden police have secured have allowed the town to supplement its patrols, and that’s one reason why there hasn’t been a fatal crash in town since April 21, 2017, according to Benjamin.
Benjamin attended a military high school in Brazil and served in the Army infantry there after graduation. He moved to the U.S. in 2003 to improve his English skills and to finish up his Master of Business Administration degree. He picked Maine off a map of the U.S. because the state was colored blue, and blue is his favorite color.
“I came to the Northeast from Brazil, where I lived in a city of 3 million people near the equator and the temperature is 80 degrees everyday and it is either sunny or raining,” he said.
Benjamin met his wife — from Rockwood in the Moosehead Lake region — while here. They now live in Bangor with their three children.
“So now I’m pretty much stuck here but I’ve learned to enjoy winter,” he said.
Benjamin opened a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school in Bangor in 2006 and became a U.S. citizen two years later. By 2010, he was running the school — which is now located in Brewer — part-time and working full-time as a police officer.
Because he speaks Portuguese, his native language, and some Spanish, Benjamin has been called on to act as an interpreter after car crashes and for inmates at the Penobscot County Jail. He also enjoys being involved in the many community outreach programs the Holden Police Department sponsors.
“He’s quite modest in all he does,” Greeley said.
Benjamin has little sympathy for police officers who cut corners and don’t follow the rules. Every news report about a bad cop “breaks my heart,” he said.
“This job is about integrity,” Benjamin said. “It’s about doing the right thing even when people aren’t watching you. People make mistakes. Cops make mistakes but they should take ownership of those mistakes.”
Earlier this month, the Holden Police Department named Benjamin its officer of the year for 2021. Benjamin also received the award for 2019. He is a use-of-force instructor, a field sobriety test instructor and a drug recognition expert instructor.