Ahmed Haidar takes over as new police chief of Dearborn Heights
Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi has named Ahmed Haidar the city's new police chief.
Haidar, who was named acting chief in early 2025, replaces former police chief Jerrod Hart, who stepped down in July 2024.
The new chief says he's ready to tackle concerns that are important to the people of this community.
"Try to combat this traffic issue by more probable cause traffic stops, more tickets being issued, more monitoring of people that were drag racing," Haidar said.
A few weeks ago, a Dearborn Heights teen was killed in an alleged street racing incident. Since then, the department has issued almost 850 citations for reckless driving infractions.
"We put a program together with our SROs to where they're going to have programs at the schools, where they're going to review body cameras and accidents and have a conversation with a family member who might have lost a life," Haidar said.
Haidar has almost 30 years of law enforcement experience with the Detroit Police Department.
"I was very, very happy about, you know, given the opportunity to be the chief police chief in the city of Deborah Heights, where I was born and raised for almost 40 years; my family still lives out here," Haidar said.
Bazzi said he chose Haidar for the positive impact he's had on the department in the last few weeks.
"I look forward to seeing him continue to build relationships between the police department and the community while adhering to the highest law enforcement standards," Bazzi said.
Meanwhile, Haidar says he looks forward to working with the city council to get work done, and he aims to hire more police officers.
"The goal is to build up this police department, to have more police officers. More police officers mean, you know, better response times for calls and services," Haidar said.
Haidar will be formally sworn in as police chief in a ceremony sometime in the coming weeks.
