Richmond police chief reveals he got speeding ticket from one of his own officers

Near the end of a briefing Thursday on Richmond’s annual crime statistics, Police Chief Rick Edwards voluntarily revealed he had his own brush with the law the day before.

While heading to a meeting in his police vehicle on Wednesday, Edwards said, one of his own officers pulled him over for going too fast.

“I was driving southbound on the Lee Bridge when one of the officers who I send out every day to pull people over, pulled me over in my police car,” Edwards said. “And after learning how fast I was going, I spoke to his supervisor and asked him to come to headquarters. He came here. He informed me that I was going 61 miles an hour in a 35. So I asked him to issue me a summons.”

Edwards then held up the summons for the room to see, saying he wanted the public to hear it from him first instead of learning about the incident from someone else.

“It's important for me, it's important for our community to slow down,” he said. “And I will deal with the consequences of this.”

The summons shows Edwards was charged with reckless driving because, according to his own account, he was going more than 20 miles per hour over the limit.

Edwards clarified that he wasn’t responding to any emergency, which would have enabled him to avoid a ticket due to his status as a law enforcement officer.

As part of the briefing, Edwards presented data showing traffic fatalities in Richmond dropped by 32% in 2024, falling to 17 after the city saw 25 traffic deaths in 2023 and 28 in 2022.