Our Next Speaker

Rick Edwards, Chief of Police, City of Richmond - “RVA Police. Striving for Excellence, Integrity & Justice.”

Richard “Rick” Edwards is now the city’s 21st chief of police. Rick Edwards, named the city’s top cop Wednesday, earned a basketball scholarship to the University of Richmond as a rugged interior player. Edwards, from Chesapeake, Ohio, arrived at UR in 1993. The 6-foot-8, left-handed forward, who attended Fork Union Military Academy for a postgraduate year, was known as a rebounder, screen setter and physical defender early in his UR career. Rick Edwards joined the Richmond Police Department in 1999 and was assigned to 2nd Precinct as a Patrol Officer where he worked in various street-level narcotics units later becoming a detective in the Major Crimes Division. But for most of his career, he investigated homicides.

He spent time with the ATF Task Force before moving on to Major Crimes and then Homicide. He says he chose law enforcement because he thought it would be a challenging career that would allow him to help people. To quote Chief Edwards… “I am delighted and humbled to be the Police Chief in Richmond. To be allowed to serve this beautiful, fun, and vibrant city is a chance of a lifetime.”