Deputy Chief AJ DeAndrea( Ret.) Arvada, CO Police Department
Deputy Chief A. J. DeAndrea( retired) began his career with the Arvada, Colorado Police Department in 1993, retiring from APD in 2023 and is currently the Owner and CEO of Centurio Training and Consulting LLC. During his time at Arvada he served as a member of the Jefferson County Regional SWAT Team from 1996 to 2012- a collateral duty team where he was a Team Leader. The majority of his career was spent on patrol but he also spent 2 years as the Sergeant of the Internal Affairs Unit and 4 years as the Sergeant in the Community Response Impact Team( CRIT) and was also an Operations Commander. During the last 5 years of his career he was a Deputy Chief, where he over saw both the Field and Operations divisions of the Arvada Police Department.
Deputy Chief DeAndrea is a lead instructor for the NTOA’ s Team Leader Development Course, a lead instructor in the NTOA’ s Command College, a Master Less Lethal Instructor, a Colorado and Alaskan POST certified instructor. He teaches Leadership, Officer Survival, Building Searches, Rapid and Immediate Deployment( RAID), Enhanced Active Shooter Strategies, Single Officer Response to an Active Shooter, SWAT, SWAT Team Leader Development, Defensive Tactics and Firearms as well as many other disciplines. He was formally certified in Explosive Breaching.
Deputy Chief DeAndrea graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1990, and has a Bachelor of Arts degree. He is a graduate of the Northwestern School of Police Staff and Command, Class 504 as well as the prestigious FBI National Academy, Session 283.
Deputy Chief DeAndrea has received 6 Medals for Valor, 4 Medals for Distinguished Service, 2 Medals for Meritorious Service, 2 unit citations and numerous commendations. From 2006 to 2010, he was honored as the“ Police Officer of the Year” through the Primo Awards. In 2007, he also received an Honorable Mention for Police Officer of the Year through the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Parade Magazine. In 2014, Deputy Chief DeAndrea received the John Kolman Award of Excellence from the National Tactical Officers Association. Also in 2014, he received the Colorado Attorney General’ s Excellence in Law Enforcement Award. This award is given to only one Law Enforcement Officer a year by the Colorado Attorney General. In 2015, he was inducted into the Colorado’ s Italian American Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was recognized as the City of Arvada Employee of the Year for Service to the Community. In 2023 he received the Jeffco / DeAngelis Foundation’ s inaugural Community Safety Champion Award.
Deputy Chief DeAndrea has instructed all over the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Serbia. Some of those venues have been the FBI Headquarters in Washington DC, FBI Academy in Quantico, VA the IACP Annual Conference in both Denver, CO, Chicago, IL, and Boston, MA, the Rocky Mountain Tactical Team Association, the Texas Tactical Police Officer Association, the Missouri Tactical Police Officer’ s Association, the Michigan Tactical Officer ' s Association and the New York Tactical Police Officer ' s Association.
He has presented at many School Resource Officer’ s Conferences to include but not limited to the National Association of School Resource Officers, the Florida Association of School Resource Officers, the Texas Association of School Resource Officers, the Colorado Association of School Resource Officers and the Oregon Association of School Resource Officers. He is an instructor for the National Tactical Officer’ s Association and does numerous AAR of the incidents he’ s been involved in. He is a member of the advisory board for the DeAngelis Foundation, National Council of School Safety Directors and the IACP ' s Mass Violence Advisory Initiative. He formally sat on the advisory board for the I Love U Guys Foundation, the Jefferson County Regional Crime Lab, the Jefferson County Juvenile Assessment Center and the Denver Metro Regional Anti Violence Enforcement Network. In 2009, he provided instruction at the Police Improvement Facility in Bramshill, United Kingdom and in 2010, he was the International Keynote Speaker at the ACPO Conference in London, England. In 2012 to 2014 and 2017 to 2023 he instructed in Vancouver, Canada. In 2015-2017 and in 2019, he instructed in Ontario, Canada. In 2018, he spoke in Regina, Canada. In 2018 and 2022 he instructed in Calgary, Canada. In 2017 and 2020 he instructed in Winnipeg, Manitoba and in 2022 Quebec City, Quebec. In 2018 he instructed in Uppsala, Sweden. He is recognized as a Subject Matter Expert on Active Shooters by the US Department of Education. In 2013, he spoke in the Kennedy Caucus Hearing Room in Washington, DC and participated in a conference call with the Vice President of the United States Joe Biden. In June of 2018, he met with the Attorney General of the United States-Jeff Sessions. In 2023 at the request of the US Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia he presented at numerous conferences and did numerous press interviews throughout the country of Serbia.
Deputy Chief DeAndrea was an Entry Team Leader at Columbine High School on the first sweep of the building and a Team Leader during the Bulldozer Incident in Granby, CO. He helped devise and execute the tactical plan for the Hostage Rescue at Platte Canyon High School in September 2006. Again in 2006, he was the Team Leader during an Officer Rescue where a deputy was pinned down by gunfire and was rescued without injury. In 2007, he was the Patrol Supervisor and Patrol Entry Team Leader during the Youth With a Mission( YWAM) active shooting. While working with the CRIT unit, he received his 6th Medal of Valor for helping to physically subdue an armed violent kidnapping suspect in a stairwell.
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