Thedrick Andres has been named the new chief of police for Cibolo.
Courtesy the City of Cibolo
San Antonio Express-News
Julie Silva, Staff Writer
The new top cop in Cibolo comes with a slew of credentials.
Thedrick Andres started his career with the Louisiana Department of Corrections and the New Orleans Police Department. He worked his way up the leadership ranks at the department in Arlington, a Dallas suburb of about 400,000, before leaving to take a job as a deputy chief in Henderson, Nevada, a Las Vegas suburb with more than 300,000 residents.
He was later named police chief.
“Thedrick brings a wealth of leadership experience and a passion for positive change,” Cibolo City Manager Wayne Reed said when making the announcement last month. “With his exceptional leadership skills coupled with extensive law enforcement knowledge, I am confident that Thedrick is the right leader to guide our police department towards achieving even greater heights in alignment with our mission and vision.”
So how did the law enforcement officer with more than three decades of experience drop from command of more than 300 officers in Henderson at the beginning of the year to 38 officers in Cibolo by the fall?
The new chief has a complicated history, starting with fatally shooting a man while off-duty several years ago and, most recently, a campaign to have him booted from Henderson.
Andres’ time in Henderson was rocky from the beginning. It kicked off with a headline in the Las Vegas Sun-Journal the week before he started work in 2018: “New Henderson deputy police chief was investigated over fatal shooting.”
The shooting was in June 2014. Andres had been on a party bus with Juan May, 45, when an argument blew up into a fight in the parking lot. Andres went to his vehicle, where he had a gun. May ran after him, and there was a tussle at the car before Andres fatally shot May.
Andres maintains he shot May in self-defense. May’s sister later said Andres had been partying all night, but the night escalated when someone suggested he dance on a pole.
A jury later no-billed Andres, meaning it didn’t find enough evidence to indict the officer. A civil case filed by May’s family was dismissed.
Andres returned to work in the Arlington Police Department before he retired as a lieutenant in 2018. Then, he was tapped by Henderson Police Chief LaTesha Watson for the deputy chief position in the department. Watson and Andres worked together in Arlington before she took the job in Henderson.
Watson was fired in 2020 and filed a lawsuit against the city, stating she was discriminated against because of her race and gender. In a court document, lawyers for the city noted Watson’s “abrasive leadership style” and tensions with the police unions. Henderson’s population is nearly two-thirds white and 6% Black.
Andres was tapped to take her place, and tensions with the police unions began almost immediately, according to union leaders. But things really got bad when Andres introduced a new “use of force” policy on Nov. 1. The next day, the city’s two police unions announced they had taken a vote of no confidence.
“Despite all of the community growth, despite the praise and consistently high approval for the Police Department, and despite low crime rates, the City of Henderson rushed to hire a police chief who lacked proper qualifications for the job and who was from far outside our region,” read a news release following the vote.
“This outsider came to Henderson with a ‘mission’ to fix and reform a department which was not broken.”
Henderson officers then took their complaints directly to the City Council at its next meeting. Months later, Andres would step down and be replaced by an internal candidate.
After retiring in Nevada, Andres was passed over for the chief position in Victoria — a city of 65,000 about 100 miles southeast of San Antonio — and was a finalist for the New Orleans police chief job when Cibolo announced the hire.
Bryan Huggins, a former Cibolo police chief who now serves as the executive director of safety and infrastructure, said the city fully vetted Andres before making the hire, and he disclosed the no-confidence vote and the shooting during the process.
“Mr. Andres’ off-duty incident was fully investigated by law enforcement, reviewed by the Dallas County District Attorney and No Billed by the Grand Jury,” Huggins wrote in a statement.
He emphasized that Andres was a finalist for the New Orleans position and undergoing a background check before withdrawing to take the Cibolo job.
Cibolo Mayor Mark Allen said applicants for the position were whittled down to three by a panel that included several police officers. He said Reed cautioned him before meeting Andres not to Google him and “let him speak to what happened in person.”
Allen said he later looked up Andres but didn’t hold his past against him. A no-confidence vote from a police union is not uncommon and often political, Allen said, adding that San Antonio Chief William McManus faced one several years ago. And Andres was not held liable for the shooting, the mayor said — “He was just doing what he needed to do for his self-defense.”
“We’re willing to give him a chance to see if he could do some things here in Cibolo. He wants to be very community-focused, community-engaged,” Allen said. “Cibolo is ranked in the top 50 safest cities in Texas, and I think our police department has a lot to do with it.”