Activists and city lawmakers balk at Aurora police recruiting at Trump rally

AURORA | Some Aurora City Council members and civil rights activists are questioning the police department’s decision to search for officer recruits at the Oct. 11 campaign rally for Donald Trump. 

“It is disconcerting that APD would try to recruit at a political event of any kind, but especially at a rally for a candidate that has attacked our city and harmed our community members,” Councilmember Alison Coomb said Monday.

Coombs wasn’t alone in her criticism.

“That shouldn’t have happened,” said Councilmember Crystal Murillo. “One in five people in Aurora are foreign-born, and police are supposed to be working to rebuild trust in our community. Trying to recruit officers at a rally built on fear mongering, xenophobia, and all the phobias just feels like a really irresponsible thing to do.” 

The reproval by both council members and civil rights activists came after the Sentinel spotted two uniformed, on-duty Aurora Police officers standing in the crowd of more than 10,000 people at Trump’s rally Friday exhibiting materials reading, “Join our team, Aurora PD is hiring.”

Both of the officers, Abdul Syidi and Arturo Zepeda, said they were part of the department’s recruitment team aiming to find rally-goers who may be interested in joining the force. They referred Sentinel questions to APD’s communications office.

Police did not speak directly to the optics of recruiting at a Trump rally, but they did say that Aurora police recruit regularly and at a wide range of events. 

“Those events include Global Fest, Aurora Pride, Cinco de Mayo and Juneteenth events, Black Arts Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Taste of Ethiopia, and this summer’s Blue Angels Air Show in Colorado Springs and the National Asian Peace Officers’ Association annual conference in Nashville, to name just a few,” said police spokesperson Joe Moylan. The unit recently recruited at at a job fair sponsored by “Congressman Jason Crow’s (a Democrat),” police said.

Moylan said APD is “welcoming of all people interested in pursuing a rewarding career in law enforcement, regardless of their race, gender, cultural heritage, religion, sexual orientation, political affiliation or background.”

The department’s new chief, Todd Chamberlain did not respond directly to Sentinel requests for comment. In a social media post on X, however, he pushed back against criticism from some council members and immigrant activists.

“Last I checked, political affiliation doesn’t exclude you from being a police officer,” Chamberlain said. “The decision by our officers to attend Friday’s rally shows initiative and is in line with our commitment to draw a diverse and large pool of candidates to alleviate our present staffing issues.” 

Trump came to the Gaylord Rockies Resort on Friday after weeks of campaigning on a false narrative inspired by Republican Aurora Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky that parts of Aurora has been overrun by members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang also known as TdA. Aurora police and city management have debunked those claims, saying the group has only a limited presence in a few apartments in the city and is not a major public safety threat. Republican Mayor Mike Coffman also criticized Trump for perpetuating false narratives about immigrants — fears Coffman at first helped Jurinsky stoke in news interviews and social media posts in August.

Coffman did not respond to inquiries Monday about the department’s recruitment efforts. 

Police departments nationwide report facing challenges hiring new officers. According to the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, “Public perception of law enforcement has worsened since the highly publicized” police killings of George Floyd and others in 2020 and “negativity and lack of support surrounding law enforcement have led to a record number of resignations and retirements.” The bulletin cites a study by the Police Executive Research Forum showing that law enforcement recruitment is down 27% to 60%, depending on the area. 

Aurora Police Department faces additional recruiting challenges because of a long and highly publicized string complaints of excessive force and other misconduct by its officers. APD has been under a state order, called a consent decree, since 2021 after an investigation by the Colorado attorney general into its record. That probe found “patterns and practices” of excessive use of force, especially against people of color. The decree requires APD to mend its ways by 2027.

Coombs said recruiting at a rally for a presidential candidate who spent most of his speech demonizing immigrants doesn’t help a police force already distrusted the city’s immigrant and minority communities.

“Trump’s scapegoating of immigrants and mass deportation rhetoric is bald-faced fascism,” she said. “That’s not who we want in the police department for a city where one-fifth of our people are immigrants.” 

Auon’tai M. Anderson, a metro civil rights activist who has spearheaded recent protests against the department since the officer-involved killing of Kilyn Lewis, an unarmed Black man being arrested in May, said he is “not surprised” that APD tried recruiting officers at a rally “built around fear-mongering against Black and brown people.”

“It’s unfortunate they’re not even trying to look like they’re taking the consent decree seriously,” he said. 

“It’s January Sixth all over again,” said V Reeves,  a spokesperson for Housekeys Action Network Denver, a group working with the Venezuelans and other immigrants in the city. “It’s incredibly dangerous when we see law enforcement that’s supposed to be impartial has strong alliances with a candidate who is actively spewing hate and inciting violence against migrants.” 

Recruiting for officers at anti-immigrant, or any, political events, she said, “Just shows how corrupt the system is.” 

Murillo, who is the daughter of immigrants from Mexico, said racist messaging at Friday’s Trump rally and a threatening phone call from an unidentified white supremacist during the Sept. 9 council meeting have made her feel unsafe in the city she has been elected to help govern. Fearing those events might embolden someone prone to violence, she’s attended Monday’s council meeting virtually rather than in-person “as an extra layer of security for myself.”