Officials in Ferguson, Mo., named Andre Anderson, a black officer from an Arizona department, to serve as the interim police chief Wednesday morning, just days before the first anniversary of Michael Brown's shooting death at the hands of Officer Darren Wilson.
Anderson, 50, will take over as the suburban St. Louis department's chief after spending 24 years with the Glendale, Ariz., police, according to interim city manager Ed Beasley, the New York Daily News reported.
"He is extremely well-qualified," Ferguson Mayor James Knowles told Reuters. "He will bring us a fresh perspective coming from outside the St. Louis region."
While with the Glendale Police Department, Anderson's duties "included leading the Criminal Investigations Division, supervising detectives from Homicide, Fraud and Computer Forensics, Family Violence as well as other undercover operations to include joint task force agents assigned to the DEA, FBI and U.S. Marshals," a city of Ferguson press release listed, according to CBS news affiliate KMOV 4.
Anderson is taking a six-month leave from his Glendale post to serve as the interim police chief in Ferguson - a post which may become permanent based on his performance, Knowles said Wednesday.
Officials hope that Anderson will be able to regain the public's trust in Ferguson's scandal-scarred police department as a result of the damning Justice Department report that found a culture of racism in the police department and municipal offices, according to NBC.
"It was not easy" to find a new chief after the controversy last fall and the subsequent federal investigation put the city in the nation's spotlight, Knowles told Reuters, according to the New York Daily News.
"We're bringing someone in who has some expertise and who will help us," he told the news wire service.
"There's a lot of work to be done," Anderson told reporters on Wednesday, according to NBC. "I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work."
