SHARE Richard Bash

By Jennifer Pignolet of The Commercial Appeal

Deputy Chief Richard Bash of the Columbus, Ohio police department admits he's quite picky.

So when it came time to search for a place to advance his career in law enforcement, Memphis was on a very short list, he said.

"Memphis is just a great town," Bash said via phone from Columbus. "The atmosphere, the growth, the environment, the culture, all of those things are just very attractive to me."

Bash, 50, is one of six finalists for the Memphis police director job. He said he knows his position as an outsider from Memphis — he's only visited the city once — could pose a challenge.

"It's going to take an awful long time to earn the trust of the community," he said.

But conversely, he said, it could be an advantage.

"I bring a clearly different perspective from Columbus, Ohio," Bash said.

Bash is a 26-year veteran of the Columbus police department and has overseen the investigative subdivision as one of the department's six deputy chiefs since 2010.

A U.S. Army National Guard veteran and graduate of Ohio Dominican University, Bash said he thought he would end up going to medical school.

"Organic chemistry really convinced me that I did not need to be a physician," he said.

He joined the police department instead, falling in love with a career helping others.

"No matter how bad my day was, when I went to work, I knew I had the ability to be a positive influence on a person's life every single day," he said.

Bash applied to be the police chief of his department in 2012. According to a story from the Columbus Dispatch newspaper vetting each of the four candidates' backgrounds, Bash came to the department with high recommendations from his time as a combat medic. His record at the time showed no use of force complaints, the paper reported.

Bash acknowledged the challenges that would come with the Memphis job, including negotiating the relationship between law enforcement and the community during times of strained racial tensions in a city with a history deeply rooted in race. Twenty-eight percent of Columbus' population is black, according to 2010 census figures.

"It's important that those communities have a personal relationship with the officers," Bash said.

To that end, he said he's been present at several community meetings and churches in Columbus, and has encouraged his officers — even those who don't patrol the streets — to be actively involve in minority communities.

Bash said he'd heard of the Memphis community's support for Interim Police Director Michael Rallings after he peacefully ended a Black Lives Matter protest on the Hernando DeSoto bridge earlier this month. Bash said he expects the city to choose the person who is the best fit for the job.

"I've heard nothing but good things about him," Bash said of Rallings.

On another tough part of the Memphis job, recruitment, Bash said Columbus has worked to make the department as attractive as possible, not always with top pay, but with plentiful opportunities for advancement. "That would really have to be a selling point for Memphis as well," Bash said.

Bash himself rose through the ranks to be second-in-command of Ohio's largest police department in just 21 years.

Bash and his wife, Sandra, have two sons. One is serving in the Ohio Air National Guard and the other is a rising high school sophomore.

As for what attracts him to Memphis, Bash acknowledged the chance to flee the cold Ohio weather was definitely a factor.

"I'll take 100 (degrees) over 20 any day," he said.