Ann Arbor police chief draws lessons from Ferguson, urges community policing and training reforms

Chief Andre Anderson, chief of the Ann Arbor Police Department, told attendees at the Independent Community Police Oversight Commission’s Memorial Social Justice Symposium that his work in Ferguson after the 2014 Michael Brown shooting taught him the limits of force and the importance of community partnership.

Anderson described arriving in Ferguson amid sustained unrest and cited municipal enforcement statistics intended to explain the depth of local distrust: a city of roughly 20,000 people that issued about 90,000 citations between 2010 and 2014 and maintained more than 30,000 warrants, he said. He referenced Department of Justice findings and class-action litigation tied to municipal-court practices and jail conditions in the St. Louis area.

“Community policing is not a strategy. It is a philosophy,” Anderson said, describing steps he took to reduce violence and repair relations: meeting people where they were, centering trusted local leaders such as grandmothers and pastors, and negotiating protest agreements that avoided chemical crowd control. “We have an agreement with the protesters. You protest, we don’t gas,” he said.

Anderson also outlined internal reforms he has prioritized in Ann Arbor: a notification protocol for oversight bodies, training on procedural justice, de‑escalation and human-rights concepts, and careful vetting of leaders so reforms “filter down” through the department. He argued that organizational change requires treating institutional problems—what he described as “cancer”—directly and replacing practices that generate fines and fees as de facto revenue.

“I want your heart,” Anderson said of the quality he looks for in officers, adding that when an officer’s intent is to serve and respect community members, mistakes can be met with grace but repeated wrongdoing requires other employment choices.

The presentation included video excerpts and national context showing how fragmented municipal systems and punitive enforcement policies can create cycles of fines, warrants and community harm. Anderson credited local ordinances and council direction—together with leadership continuity—for enabling policy shifts in Ann Arbor.

The chief’s remarks were followed by a question-and-answer segment in which department lieutenants and commission members described ongoing efforts to measure and track outcomes from policy changes.

The symposium closed with brief remarks from commissioners and recognition of outgoing commission chair Stephanie Carter.