Aurora lawmakers this week made clear how valid the old adage is that when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail.
In a ham-handed attempt to reign in the city’s problematic police chief, city council members whacked the entire police department on the head with its legislation tool.
The new Democratic majority of the city council agreed Monday that the often misspoken, frequently tone deaf, sometimes erroneous and potentially alarming comments of Police Chief Todd Chamberlain have to stop.
Rather than pressure the city manager, to whom Chamberlain reports, to make Chamberlain quit telling the public that Black men shot dead while encountering Aurora police “choose” to get themselves shot, or that a deeply troubled person killed during a textbook suicide-by-cop episode was a “tragic” person because they were transgender, the council majority saddled city police and staff with new rules and regulations that are unlikely to solve the problem.
Lawmakers on Monday, in a 6-4 vote, agreed to impose emergency rules that essentially require police to clear future social media posts and press releases with the city manager’s office.
In Aurora, the public is already at a disadvantage in getting a clear and accurate picture of what the crime situation is because of the strategic lack of transparency built into the Aurora police department.
Several years ago, Aurora police discontinued a system that allows the public, and the media, to easily scan calls for service recorded by dispatchers and then quickly glean factual details about what happened last night, last week or last year.
Not long after, Aurora police decided to “encrypt” their police radio system, locking the media out of a critical way of reporting public safety emergencies and mundane calls for service.
Aurora at one time offered the media special access to the encrypted scanner system, but with the caveat that reporting something police disliked, the newspaper or TV station could be held liable.
Essentially, the Sentinel, and all metro news media, are at the mercy of the police department, which decides which individual crimes they release to the public.
For the most part, Aurora police communication officials are professional and diligent in ensuring that details about crime are accurate and timely. Many of these police spokespersons are former journalists.
The emergency resolution passed by city council Monday prohibits police from “posting” pictures and other identifying information about criminal suspects, unless the city manager’s office determines there is a compelling reason to make the details public. An example of that would be the mugshot of a suspect at-large that police consider dangerous to others.
This will have an immediate chilling effect on the already limited amount of information the Aurora community gets on incidents of crime and public safety.
Most of what the Aurora police offer the media and public is limited to factual but brief accounts of crimes or incidents involving fatalities or gunshot injuries.
Chamberlain, however, has on numerous occasions gone far beyond the facts of the case, and offered commentary without fact, leaving the media to point out to the public that statements made by the chief are often without evidence or even contrary to it.
His defense, and that of his allies on city council, is that the chief is responsible for a drop in key crime categories in the city. Neither Chamberlain nor anyone else in the city has provided any proof of that. Almost every community in the metro area, and the state, and even across the nation, report almost identical drops in crime.
Even if it were true, reducing crime at the cost of the public’s trust in the department and sketchy civil rights violations is not a quid pro quo.
The practice would be problematic for any police department. Aurora is not just any police department. It just marked its fourth year of working through a state-enforced consent decree to enact a long list of mandated police reforms. The decree came after a state investigation determined that the department has for years exhibited “patterns and practices” of using excessive force, especially against people of color.
While straight and factual news releases about crimes have over the past few months withered, APD has instead recently created dramatic social media posts and theatrical reels creating a bizarre and unwise collection of commentary about crime, rather than just providing the public with needed information and details.
One post on X offered a narrative about an April 26 robbery on East Colfax where a suspect threatened to shoot a store employee apparently on the phone with police. According to the post, police pursued three juvenile suspects, making an arrest about 3:30 a.m. “We can’t stress this enough – getting your kicks by committing crimes isn’t worth it,” the post author states. “And also, these three were out way past their bedtime. We “want” you to succeed in life — this just isn’t the way to do it.”
It’s unclear who the message on X is intended to impress, or why police would consider making light of a woman whose life was threatened during an armed robbery.
On May 5, another anonymous police poster on X lauded police for arresting someone suspected of driving a stolen car. The suspect attempted to flee when confronted by Aurora police.
“Sigh. Another runner. No worries, we got you,” the post said, making light of a police pursuit that experts across the nation say are ill-advised and dangerous to both officers and the public.
The poster quoted a police official who said the suspect had “An extensive criminal history … it may be the largest I’ve ever seen.”
Monday night, City Attorney Pete Schulte told city council members that he’d had a discussion with Arapahoe County DA Amy Padden, and both agreed that such social media banter and editorializing creates very real legal problems for prosecutors in that they make clear the police in Aurora are not acting without malice or intent in their arrests.
This behavior and the often odd and sometimes dangerous comments of the chief impugn a large and dedicated police force who, for the largest part, don’t behave the same way.
All this bodes ill for ensuring a fair and just criminal justice system and especially on rebuilding public trust in a critical city department that continually finds ways that undermine it.
The problem in Aurora isn’t a system that undermines the public trust by promoting police officer prose rather than facts, the problem is whoever is making it or allowing it to happen.
Changing the system won’t fix the problem. That’s hitting the nail on the head.
For the far-left woke-communist revolution to succeed, it must control the narrative by controlling the media. Individuals, particularly those with power and influence, cannot be allowed to freely speak their opinions without significant censorship. Party ideology must be reinforced without contradiction.