Auburn Police Chief Cedric Anderson retiring

Auburn Police Chief Cedric Anderson – Photo from City of Auburn

Cedric Anderson, Auburn’s chief of police since 2020, has announced that he will retire at the end of January after 34 years in local policing.

Assistant Police Chief Mike Harris will take over as Auburn police chief on February 1.

Since beginning as a patrol officer in 1992, Anderson has held nearly every rank within the police division including that of a patrolman, narcotics detective, supervisor, patrol lieutenant, patrol captain, section chief for City operations and assistant chief before becoming police chief.

In Anderson’s six years as chief, the police department has used cutting-edge technology to improve and enhance its work and increased its capacity to provide training to outside agencies. He credits the men and women with whom he has served for the department’s success and says he is grateful to the Auburn community for their support over the years. When asked what he would say to the community he served for so long, his response is, simply, “thank you.”

“Chief Anderson has provided excellent leadership to the Auburn Police Department at every level of his career, culminating as police chief,” said Auburn City Manager Megan Crouch. “We have a better police force because of him, and we thank him for his decades of dedicated service to the Auburn community.”

Incoming Police Chief Mike Harris is an Auburn native and Auburn University graduate who worked as a patrol officer in Auburn from 1994 through 1999. His career led him to the FBI, where he had a successful 22 years of service before retiring and returning to Auburn in 2021 to become assistant chief of police. While various assignments with the FBI took Harris and his family across the county, he and his wife, Ivy, along with their three daughters, have always considered Auburn home. It was growing up in Auburn, during a ride-along with a former lieutenant of Auburn Police, that 12-year-old Harris discovered his dream to be a police officer.

Auburn incoming police chief Mike Harris – Photo from City of Auburn

“Chief Harris is a proven leader who will continue the Auburn Police Department’s commitment to excellence in public service,” Crouch said. “His passion for Auburn and his high-level career experience with the FBI have equipped him well for this role.”

In his time with the FBI, Harris served in various assignments nationwide including 18 months as acting chief of the FBI’s Technical Surveillance and Tactical Operations Sections in Quantico, Virginia. While assigned as a special agent to the Auburn Resident Agency from 2012 to 2014, Harris partnered with Auburn Police on one of the largest animal fighting investigations in U.S. history. Harris was the recipient of 19 performance awards in 22 years, including three “Medals of Excellence,” the FBI’s highest award for exceptional performance.

As police chief, Harris will focus on expanding the department’s use of state-of-the-art technologies to strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of its work. He intends to bolster the department’s investment in officer fitness, mental health, training, and leadership development. As the new police chief of a town where his mother still lives in his childhood home, he’s committed to keeping Auburn as safe as he remembers it from his youth.

“I’m dedicated to ensuring this community continues to be one of the safest places to live, raise your family, work, and attend school” Harris said. “It is the number one priority for me. I feel like our responsibility here at APD is to ensure that those who live, work, and visit our community feel safe and secure here, and that happens in partnership with our citizens. We want people to feel they are connected to their Police Department.”

— Information from the City of Auburn