Ferguson, Missouri, has never been the same since it was wracked with unrest following the death of Michael Brown, but its new police chief, an African-American man named Andre Anderson, wants to work toward the future; his goal is “simply to build trust.”
At the same time he announced that Anderson would be the new police chief, Mayor James Knowles also announced that police would be wearing body cameras, a welcome move for those who have been pushing for more transparency and accountability in policing, reports USA Today.
Anderson, who was named the new interim police chief following the Justice Department report that forced previous police chief, Tom Jackson, along with the city manager and municipal judge out of their jobs, said that his first steps would be to get out in the community and be visible. The Justice Department report had found that city officials were engaged in practices that were discriminatory against the largely African-American population.
Anderson said that he would be using the Justice Department’s recommendations “to cultivate relationships that we know and hope will reshape our direction in the city of Ferguson” and that he would be implementing programs of procedural and constitutional justice training, de-escalation training and “bias awareness training.”