AURORA | Aurora lawmakers are slated to consider another round of police reforms Monday, including a moratorium on first responders administering ketamine to suspects and banning police from executing “no-knock” warrants.
The proposals, submitted by Councilmembers Curtis Gardner and Angela Lawson, target police and first responder practices that have been at the center of two high-profile cases: Breonna Taylor, who died in Louisville, Kentucky, and Elijah McClain, who died last August after an encounter with Aurora police.
McClain, a Black massage therapist, was detained by a trio of Aurora police officers last August on his way home from a north Aurora convenience store. He was placed in a now-banned control hold and injected with 500 milligrams of ketamine after a passerby described him as “sketchy” to 911 dispatchers. He legally died three days later and was taken off life support three days after that. Documents have revealed that the paramedic who injected McClain overestimated his weight by nearly 80 pounds.
Taylor was shot eight times and killed in her apartment after three plain clothes police personnel barged into her home, while she was sleeping, as part of an investigation targeting a pair of drug dealers.
Both Taylor and McClain have been at the center of national rallying cries for reforming police and addressing systemic racism.
Councilmember Gardner proposed a resolution in support of temporarily banning first responders from subduing criminal suspects with ketamine until a review of the city’s policies on the drug is completed.
If approved, the measure would be in effect up until 30 days after the consultant, Washington D.C.-based attorney Jonathan Smith, submits his report on polices related to McClain’s death to the city.
Local first responders used the drug 18 times in the city last year and twice in the first six months of this year, according to a spokeswoman for the local fire agency.
During a council study session Monday, lawmakers will take a first look at a proposal from Councilmember Lawson to outlaw “no-knock” warrants.
The city-wide law would ban Aurora Police Department officers from executing a search warrant of a person’s home or business without first announcing their presence and authority.
According to APD Chief Vanessa Wilson, APD officers announce their presence in the vast majority of warrant executions.
Judges approved 10 no-knock warrants since 2018, according to APD data requested by Lawson, but APD leadership says the department only executed five of those warrants without announcing their presence first.
In the same period, APD executed 315 “knock and announce” warrants.
“No-Knock warrants are only used in situations where there is a clear risk to the SWAT officers’ lives,” Wilson said in a memo. According to the APD data, those situations included suspects fortified in their homes with drugs and guns as well as murder suspects.
Last week, a city council committee nixed two ordinances and approved another aimed at restricting the local police department’s use of chemical agents and heavy equipment that is procured from the military.
— Quincy Snowdon contributed to this report