Andre was born and raised in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He moved to the United States in 1972 and lived in the Chicago area since 1973.
He was a graduate of the University of Chicago, Class of 1979 with an M.A. in European History.
In 1986, Andre joined the Chicago Police Department, working the South and West Side of the city, as well as all of the major public housing projects.
He trained police recruits in the field and was part of the Community Policing implementation team when that became the city's new policing strategy in 1993.
In 1997, Andre was catastrophically injured during a high-speed pursuit, which ended his law enforcement career. Paralyzed from the chest down and legally blind due to an Aortic rupture sustained in the accident, he spent 6 months in various hospitals and at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
Andre authored a book about his experiences as a Chicago Police Officer - 'Chicago Cop: Tales from the Street'. He continued to write about law enforcement issues, especially recently, as police departments around the country, and the law enforcement profession itself, are being held to a higher standard.
Photography had been a hobby since he was a student in Amsterdam. Even though he lost much of his eyesight, Andre understood the basic principles of photography and found he could use a modern auto-focus camera and create high quality images.
He posted many of his images on Flickr.com under the banner of 'Andre's Street Photography.'
Andre was the loving father of Jennifer Van Vegten. He was a cherished friend, an heroic patrolman and a Field Training Officer for the Chicago Police Department.