Rich has over 31 years of Law Enforcement experience as an officer on the Sioux Falls Police Department and has worked in all sections of the department. He worked on the streets in patrol for 19 years as an officer, Sgt., and Lt. As a Captain, he has commanded the Detective Division, Community Services Division and Uniformed Services Division. He has 24 years of experience as the SWAT team commander and later as the primary Incident Commander for SWAT call outs and has overseen approximately 350 critical incidents in and out of Sioux Falls. He was last responsible for and oversaw the Traffic Section, School Resource officers, Community Resource officers, Animal Control and all of the specialty units such as SWAT, K9, Crisis Negotiation Unit and Bomb Squad.