Police Chief Andre Anderson delivers his acceptance speech Wednesday afternoon.Lucas Chen/Daily. Buy this photo. 
Police Chief Andre Anderson recites his oath to become Ann Arbor’s next police chief Wednesday afternoon. Lucas Chen/Daily. Buy this photo. 
Police Chief Andre Anderson talks with friends, family, and constituents after his swearing-in ceremony Wednesday afternoon.Lucas Chen/Daily. Buy this photo. 
Earnestine Hardaway Anderson smiles as her husband delivers his acceptance speech Wednesday afternoon. Lucas Chen/Daily. Buy this photo. 
Police Chief Andre Anderson delivers his acceptance speech Wednesday afternoon.Lucas Chen/Daily. Buy this photo. 
Police Chief Andre Anderson and his wife Earnestine Hardaway Anderson during his swearing-in ceremony Wednesday afternoon. Lucas Chen/Daily. Buy this photo. 
U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell is invited to give an impromptu speech for the swearing-in ceremony of Police Chief Andre Anderson. Lucas Chen/Daily. Buy this photo. 
Police Chief Andre Anderson delivers his acceptance speech Wednesday afternoon. Lucas Chen/Daily. Buy this photo.
Ann Arbor community members gathered in the City Council chambers for the swearing-in of Andre Anderson, Ann Arbor’s new police chief, Wednesday afternoon. Anderson replaced Patrick Maguire, the interim police chief, becoming the first permanent police chief since July 2022.
Anderson served as the assistant police chief in Tempe, Ariz. from 2021 to 2023 and the executive deputy police chief of Rochester, N.Y. In a press release, Anderson said he plans to build trust in the community and turn the Ann Arbor Police Department into the nation’s model police agency.
“I believe the city of Ann Arbor is working collaboratively to implement plans to enhance an environment where community policing, the community and city government serve as problem-solving participatory partners,” Anderson said. “I am committed to building mutual trust and public safety while creating a shared vision and leadership approach that sets our agency apart and revered as the nation’s model police agency.”
In a speech at the event, City Administrator Milton Dohoney Jr. said the City Council decided to hire Anderson because of his ability to connect with the Ann Arbor community.
“We choose our leaders not absent (from) the context of the environment in which they will serve,” Dohoney Jr. said. “The police department must have a leader that is comfortable engaging with every person that is a member of the Ann Arbor community. Ann Arbor should have a leader in the police department that knows what it means to accept authority with humility. Andre Anderson gets that.”
At the ceremony, Anderson told the crowd that his primary goal as chief will be combating racial injustice in Ann Arbor.
“Not too far from here, President Lyndon B. Johnson formally launched his Great Society program (at) the University of Michigan,” Anderson said. “His goal was the elimination of racial injustice. This is a goal that has always resonated close to me with respect to how I feel, what I believe and how I should chief. It allows someone like me to be here today.”
In the opening remarks of the event, Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor said that police departments have recently faced increased scrutiny, leaving officers to serve in difficult roles.
“We don’t do enough for each other, and we do too much to each other,” Taylor said. “We ask the police to serve in a cultural environment where the profession is under intense scrutiny — where community members, hurt and outraged by injustice, and injustices there are, direct their frustration at the officer in front of them. It is the officer’s job to take that in with discipline and poise.”
In her speech at the event, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich, said the entire police department plays an important role in the safety of the community.
“Law enforcement is the backbone of our communities,” Dingell said. “The purpose of the government is to make sure we are providing certain public goods and keeping our citizens safe.”
Daily Staff Reporter Evangeline Doolittle can be reached at evangedo@umich.edu.