“Ever since I was little, I just was keen on the concept of being a police officer or law enforcement,” Sedona police recruit Andrew Cecere said. “I know they can sometimes get a bad rap. But, my older cousin was a cop and I always admired him. And I kind of followed his footsteps. He did the Navy, and I enlisted. I remember talking to him about doing it and he was a police officer forever.” 

Cecere is a 2006 graduate of Sedona Rock High School, where he played varsity tennis with his twin brother, John Cecere. His family originally moved to the area from Boston in the late 1990s. He later graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in criminal justice. 

“We [went] through [Northern Arizona Regional Training Academy] which is a joint agency academy,” Cecere said about the five month training program he and fellow SPD recruit Cole Taylor attended. “It’s still one [of the] only high stressful academies that they offer around here … it reminded me of boot camp.” Cecere worked as a military policeman in the Navy from 2018 to 2022, which included law enforcement and checking IDs at the front gate. 

“I feel a little bit more confident than coming in with zero years of experience,” Cecere said. He later met his wife in Virginia after returning to the U.S. and they eventually decided to make the move to Sedona, drawn by the area’s beauty and Cecere’s memories of growing up in the region. During his time overseas, Cecere also got a tattoo of a panda, which was his nickname. 

“When I was in Japan there was a little sign on the street with a panda,” Cecere said. “I took a picture of it and popped into the tattoo shop. I said, ‘Can you do this?’ [The tattoo artist] was like, ‘Yeah, five minutes, one second,’ and he put out a cigarette. And next thing I know, five minutes later, I had a panda tattoo.” 

Before joining the academy, Cecere also worked briefly for the Department of Child Safety focusing on adoptions. “It’s a lot of followup, was a decent amount of traveling,” Cecere said. “Sad stories, usually, that you had to deal with. Down the stretch when I knew I was joining the academy, I gave them a heads up and I had 13 kids on my file and I was able to get all but three adopted to good families. Because you kind of have to vet them and sniff out bad foster parents, which happens, but I feel like the ones I was working with were solid.” 

Cecere remarked that the community has changed since he graduated. “I recall Sedona being much more of a town that had more kids around,” Cecere recalled. “Schools, I remember, were packed. In 2006, don’t know if they ever beat it, but we had the biggest graduating classes. It was like 130 of us. And now I know that it’s tougher for families to live here, different schools have closed down, there’s [fewer] sports teams. It’s just kind of a bummer to learn stuff like that. I came back with the only hope that NYBD Bagel was still around [but] that’s gone.” 

On his days off, Cecere enjoys dirt biking and spending time with his wife as well as watching UFC matches. Cecere also mentioned that his hidden talent is doing impressions of people. “I can quote practically any movie,” Cecere said. “My brother and I have always been doing it … if I could remember policy here, like I [can] movie quotes, [I’d] be the ‘Good Will Hunting’ of policy.” Cecere added that he wants to make SPD his long-term career path. “I bounced around to different jobs kind of like millennials do,” Cecere said. “In Boston, I did sales and finance insurance and never really found a calling … I had dreams of being like a U.S. marshal … But I figured in today’s world, in law enforcement and being in a big city, it’s not worth it. So when I had the opportunity to set up shop and do it in Sedona, it just felt right.”