Henderson Police Chief Thedrick Andres knew he wanted to be a police officer from a young age. As a teenager growing up in a crime-ridden New Orleans neighborhood, he encountered cops who were “a little bit less than community-based.”
But then two officers started coming around and interacting with the youths in his neighborhood, mentoring them through conversation, football and basketball. Along the way, the officers explained their work and taught the kids lessons about decision-making. It left a lasting impact on Andres, who became a police officer in 1995.
He’s since landed in Southern Nevada, where a year ago he became chief of the Henderson Police Department.
“Seeing them, and the way that they interacted with the youth in our community, the way that they came in building relationships, it just gave me a whole different perspective on law enforcement,” Andres said.
Andres believes the model he experienced in his youth can help ease the racial tensions between law enforcement and the people they police today. Those relationships have been strained by the recent deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police, which led to nationwide protests amid a pandemic. Henderson has been spared of the protests.
Being a Black man who was brought up in diverse settings has helped Andres bring new perspectives to his job as a leader. “We all come into the job, especially in law enforcement, on our diverse experiences,” he said.
Though he says he has yet to experience brazen discrimination because of the color of his skin, Andres understands the issues Black Americans face.
“I’m a fundamental believer that the way policing evolves is through police-community relationships,” he said in an interview last week. “That’s the only way.”
That means strong partnerships, and officers understanding the importance of cultural diversity and implicit bias, he said. “Understanding your own biases helps you to be able to work with people: That’s what policing is, it’s an interstreet where our officers each day interact with the public.”
Henderson Police have assisted Metro Police in protests in Las Vegas, some of which have turned rowdy. On June 1, a protester was shot and killed by Metro officers around the same time an officer was critically wounded in an unrelated shooting as he was trying to break up a group of protesters.
After George Floyd died pinned underneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe, Andres addressed the rising anger and “renewed focus on policing practices” in a recorded video.
“You are not alone in your concerns,” he said in the video. “We are just as troubled by the police officers’ actions and inactions during the arrest of Mr. Floyd. Be aware that these actions would not be condoned or tolerated in the Henderson Police Department.”
Andres then highlighted some of the Henderson department’s efforts to improve community relations, noting that his patrol officers are permanently assigned to the same neighborhood, to boost familiarity between residents and the police in charge of protecting them. He also touted youth mentorship programs like the ones from his childhood.
Asked how he sees the Black Lives Matter protests as a police officer and as a Black man, Andres said that as a police officer, he sees them as people exercising their First Amendment rights to hit the streets. “I actually see it as an important time in policing to listen to our community,” he said. “We just ask that they work with us so that it’s a safe environment.”
As a Black man, he said he can see why protesters of color were upset. “I understand that they feel, and have experienced, different policing in some of their communities. And you have to acknowledge that,” he added.
Police-reform activists have made sets of demands to police across the U.S.; two of the most talked about are “defunding” police departments and banning chokeholds.
The Henderson Police Department already prohibits any type of chokehold as a use-of-force action, Andres said.
Andres would much rather hear the community “talk about how we can use police services to be able to reach the broad perspectives in the community,” he said, adding that officers are increasingly being sent to situations that have nothing to do with law enforcement, such as dealing with mentally ill persons.
“We really should shift gears and talk more about things that police are tasked with and shouldn’t be tasked with, and how do we continue to build programs to help our officers in situations that they really should not be called to,” he said.
Ultimately, Andres said, officials must listen to the community and reach a point where they meet its demands.
“We need to be able to explain with them why we have a policy or use-of-force option in place,” Andres said. “But more importantly, when things are of concern to the community, as police officers we get the right to police the community, and the community decides the way it wants (to be) policed.”
Asked what he would tell children about policing, Andres said he would encourage them to consider becoming an officer and be “a part of solutions.”
“You have an excellent opportunity to be a change agent,” he said. “You truly come to a job each and every day making an investment in the community being better.”