Former mayor Rick Ashe will be the new Chief of Police for the Village of Salado, following a vote by the Board of Aldermen on March 23

Michael McDougal made the motion to approve the recommendation of the Safety Committee to employ Rich Ashe, receiving a second from Frank Coachman.

Ashe has 36 years experience as a police officer, first in the U.S. Army, where he served in Germany 1981-1984.

He was a police officer with the City of Woodway 1987-1990 serving as a patrol officer.

Since 1990, he has been employed by the Temple Police Department. Ashe will officially retire from the Temple PD in April and begin his new duties as the Chief of Police in Salado in May.

He was an evening shift patrol officer working with the Citizens on Patrol unit and later an investigator with the Special Investigations Unit until 1998 where he was promoted to police sergeant.

In 1998-2004, he was supervisor for both day and night patrol teams, supervisor for support services and supervisor for the training unit at the Temple police department.

Ashe was promoted to lieutenant in 2004. He has served as watch commander for both day and night shift and watch commander for specialized units such as the COPS program and the Investigations Unit.

Ashe was named the Outstanding Peace Officer in Bell County in 1996. He was also named the Oustanding Police Officer in Temple in 1996. He was named a Master Peace Officer in 2005 and has numerous awards and commendations from the Temple police department.

Ashe was elected the President of the Texas Municipal Police Association in 1998.

Ashe was one of the first elected aldermen for the Village of Salado, serving from his election in 200 until he ran for and was elected Mayor of Salado in 2004. He served as Mayor of Salado until 2008 and served on the Central Texas Council of Government execetuive board 2006-08.

A graduate of Moon Valley High School in Arizona, he earned advanced training in Military Police from the U.S. Army in 1981. He graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in broadcast communications from ITT Tech in 1985.

He graduated from basic Police Academy in 1987 and Leadership Command College from the state of Texas in 2001. He has 1,200 hours of continuing training.