New Top Cop—Rich is new chief of police

By Danny Wade | October 22, 2024 |

New police chief, Kenny Rich II and his wife, Lauren

by Danny Wade

The Humboldt Police Department has a rich tradition of noble leadership in police chiefs. Over the past 50 or so years, police chiefs Reynard Buchanan, Rob Ellis, Raymond Simmons, Rickey Coleman and Raymond Kolwyck have led the men and women in blue. Now, the tradition continues to get even richer with new chief Kenny Rich being appointed to the position.

Chief Rich was born into a military family while his dad was stationed in Kansas. Soon the family moved over seas to Berlin, Germany before returning back to the United States to Fort Hood in Texas.

After the military career, the family located in Huntingdon, Tenn. when Rich was in the fifth grade. Rich graduated from Huntingdon High School in 2004 and was a member of the Huntingdon Mustangs state championship team that year. Rich had a key interception from his strong safety position, which helped lead his team to victory.

After high school, Rich attended Jackson State Community College and Lambuth College. During his college days, is when his wife, Lauren, in 2005 and the couple later wed in 2010. Now, they have two sons—Sawyer who is 10 and Asher is seven years old.

Lauren is an 8th grade teacher at Milan Middle School. The family attends Friendship Baptist Church where Rich serves as a deacon. He is also a Cal Ripken League baseball coach where he coaches his sons.

So, how did Rich get into law enforcement? Being from a military family, law enforcement fit a similar mold. After college, Rich laughed when he said he worked at a pizza joint as one of his first jobs.

Luckily for Humboldt, he had bigger and better plans. He applied for a job with the Humboldt Police Department in 2010 and was hired by Chief Simmons. Allen Barker was mayor at that time. Rich graduated from the Tennessee Law Enforcement Academy in May of 2010.

As a patrol officer for HPD, Rich was on the beat and patrolling the streets of Humboldt in his quest to ‘protect and serve’ as the police motto states. In 2011, Rich was elected by his peers as president of the Humboldt Police Officers Association and served as president 2011 through 2015.

In March of 2011, Rich was assigned to the city’s first gang unit. The next year, he became a member of the Multijurisdictional Gang Task Force that was led by District Attorney General Jerry Woodall out of the 26th Judicial District and District Attorney General Gary Brown for the 28th Judicial District. The task force worked with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, along with other state and federal agencies.

Rich continued to work his way up the ladder with HPD and in 2013, he was assigned to the special response team, often known as SWAT team. A year later in 2014, Rich was assigned to the West Tennessee Violent Crimes & Drug Task Force (WTDTF) as a task force officer by Chief Rob Ellis. WTDTF is a state agency where local departments can assign investigators to the task force to investigate violent crimes and narcotics. Investigators of the WTDTF are made up of investigators from agencies from the 28th, 29th and 30th Judicial Districts, Rich noted.

The very next year in 2015, Rich received his first promotion and was now a sergeant with HPD, while working with WTDTF. After four years on the drug task force, Rich was promoted to assistant special agent in charge as third in command under special agent in charge, Johnie Carter. Also in 2019, Rich was promoted to lieutenant with HPD upon the recommendation of Chief Buchanan. When Carter got promoted to WTDTF director, Rich moved into the special agent in charge, which had more responsibilities, along with more time on the job.

In 2020, Rich left the drug task force and returned to Humboldt police and joined the criminal investigation division. As an investigator, Rich continued to work close with the drug task force.

Also in 2020, Rich was assigned as the gang unit supervisor and promoted to team leader of the SRT. Rich chuckled when he said the only unit within the Humboldt Police Department he has not been a part of is bike patrol.

That same year, Rich joined the West Tennessee Criminal Investigators Association and was elected president by his peers in 2022.

The next rung of the ladder for Rich was when Chief Buchanan retired from HPD and interim police chief, Dan Ables, appointed Rich as acting assistant chief. As acting assistant chief, Rich continued to fulfill his duties with CID, SRT and gang unit.

Now, as chief of police, Rich said he has several things he wants to implement for Humboldt Police Department. He wants to move away from the current three 8-hour shifts and go to 12-hour shifts. This would give police officers every other weekend off. He has spoken with other police and sheriff departments that utilize the 12-hour shifts and the officers seem to prefer this to the 8-hour shift since it allows for more family or personal time. Rich believes this change would also help with the department’s high retention rate.

Rich want his officers to be more involved in the community and engage with the public to help shine a positive light on law enforcement. One way to be out in the public is to participate in National Night Out, which is typically held the first Tuesday in August. He said some departments actually hold two events each year.

Another plan is the form a grill team where officers grill hamburgers and/or hotdogs for the community for free. These events could be held at the city parks. He wants to borrow an event idea from Milan PD and have family movie night with movies in the park.

During these community events, Rich said it is a way for the police officers to get to know people in the community, while the people get to know the officers. During these type events, officers show kids the police cars and how the sirens and lights work. There could also be jumpers and games for the kids. The goal is to show the community that Humboldt police are their friends and here to protect them.

Rich knows he has some big shoes to fill, following in the footsteps of those who held the positions before him. But he believes he is up to the task. Being highly trained and voted by his peers to be the leader of larger organizations gives Rich the tools he needs to lead the Humboldt Police Department.