Heather Collins has stepped into a new role within the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, now serving as a Special Agent with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) Special Victims Unit (SVU). Collins, who has been with the department for nearly six years, announced the move on LinkedIn.
Her new position reflects a continuation of her extensive work supporting investigations into human trafficking, child exploitation, and missing children. As a Special Agent, Collins will now take the lead on proactive investigations in the central region of Mississippi, applying trauma-informed and intelligence-led strategies to complex and sensitive cases.
Collins, a certified law enforcement officer and Mississippi Law Enforcement Officer Training Academy graduate, brings nearly a decade of specialized experience in combating crimes against vulnerable populations. Her appointment, announced recently, reflects a natural progression from her most recent position as the Statewide Human Trafficking Intelligence Analyst at the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, an assignment she held for nearly six years.
Since beginning her law enforcement career in 2015 as a patrol officer, Collins has built a robust resume grounded in both operational response and intelligence-driven investigations. In 2019, she was selected to serve as the state’s lead human trafficking intelligence analyst.
In her new role as a Special Agent, Collins will lead proactive investigations throughout Mississippi’s central region, applying trauma-informed and intelligence-led approaches to cases involving human trafficking, missing children, and child exploitation. Her work will include collaboration with federal, state, and local agencies, an area where she already has deep ties through her service on multiple national and state-level task forces.
She is certified in a broad range of disciplines essential to modern investigative work, including Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), mobile forensics, cell phone mapping and analysis, financial investigations, and undercover operations. She currently serves with the Homeland Security Investigations Task Force, the National Child Protection Task Force, and the Mississippi Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Collins is also an active member of the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts, the International Association of Human Trafficking Investigators and the Skull Games Task Force as a Law Enforcement Advisor.
Her background also includes time as a Bioterrorism Watch Officer with the Mississippi Department of Health, where she helped bridge public health and homeland security operations.
Collins holds a B.S. in Kinesiology and Nutrition from Mississippi College, and her law enforcement education through the Mississippi Law Enforcement Officer Training Academy established a foundation in public safety that has guided her career.