Mark Amundson scheduled to take over LOPD in July

By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Village Council voted unanimously to approve Mark Amundson as the Lake Orion Police Department’s new chief of police during its council meeting on June 10.
The former police lieutenant is anticipated to start on July 15, as long as a background investigation and employment agreement is complete.
Amundson spent 20 years working for the City of Henderson Police Department in Nevada in four different positions, according to his resume. These roles include police lieutenant, crisis/hostage negotiation team leader, police sergeant and police officer.
According to a cover letter in the meeting’s agenda packet, Amundson has training in crisis management, incident command system (ICS), crowd dynamics, firearms, defensive tactics and more. Amundson supervised events from the 2024 Super Bowl to U.S. president visit protection.
As lieutenant, Amundson led investigations, directed and coordinated criminal investigations and acted as captain during the police captain’s absence, according to his resume. He also supervised a team of detectives and trained newly-promoted sergeants as a police sergeant from 2018 to 2022.
Village administration completed a recruitment and selection process to appoint Amundson, according to a council-action summary sheet.
This process included an oral board made up of three retired chiefs of police to review applications before selecting and interviewing applicants. The oral board also reviewed in-basket-testing scores, recommended finalists to McClary and more.
“I certainly support [McClary’s] recommendations,” George Dandalides, president of LOLA said. “I think the overall process was great, and I appreciate it.”
Former Lake Orion Chief of Police and current Council President Jerry Narsh said he has known the oral-board members for years and are people Narsh highly respects.
“And I concur highly that [McClary] have selected the right candidate,” Narsh said.
Council President Pro Tem Teresa Rutt said she is looking forward to Amundson bringing experience from another location to Lake Orion and the energy he will bring to the LOPD.
Amundson grew up in Michigan and graduated from Novi High School. He will take acting Chief of Police Thomas Lindberg’s place.
Not all residents at the meeting supported hiring a new police chief.
“I see you people trying to bring in another police chief,” said village resident Donald Kindred. “We don’t want him. I spent the last year running around this town getting signatures on petitions to have this police department disband into the charter township of Lake Orion.”
The Lake Orion Village Council’s next meeting 7:30 p.m. June 24 at Village Hall, 21 E. Church St.