AURORA | A group of community activists are calling on the city to fire its police chief with a sit-in planned for the Oct. 12 city council meeting.
The Epitome of Black Excellence, a community organization that includes many family members of Black men who were killed by Aurora police, said in a press release that the sit-in comes after repeated attempts to engage with city officials on the topic.
The group is demanding a meeting with City Manager Jason Batchelor, Mayor Pro Tem Alison Coombs and Councilmember Rob Andrews, who leads the public safety committee, to discuss their demands for the termination of Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain.
“We did not begin with a sit-in,” MiDian Shofner, CEO Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership, said in the release. “We began with conversation. We began with public comment. We began with invitations to work together. We began by asking our elected and appointed leaders to hear what families and community members were telling them. When every conventional avenue of civic engagement leaves the community standing in the same place, the question becomes what the community is expected to do next.”
Chamberlain, Batchelor and Coombs did not return a request for comment before the story was published.
Following public comment at the Oct. 12 meeting, the group plans to have members stay on the council floor until city officials agree to set up a meeting.
“Participants understand that remaining in the building could result in directives from city officials or law enforcement to leave and potentially expose individuals who refuse such directives to arrest,” the release says. “They nevertheless intend to remain peaceful and nonviolent while pressing city leadership for an immediate response.”
The group’s complaints against Chamberlain include the officer-involved shootings under his watch, as well as concerns with transparency, accountability and “rhetoric they believe has contributed to fear and distrust among immigrant communities and communities of culture.”
Aurora has been under a state mandated consent decree since 2021, which oversees policy and training changes in the public safety departments, including police and fire, to address a history of racial bias and excessive force.
The city is nearing the end of its consent decree monitoring period and a report from earlier this year shows the departments are substantially compliant with most of the mandates.
Chamberlain was hired as police chief in 2024. The city manager is responsible for hiring and firing the chief, although the council confirms the hire.
During Chamberlain’s tenure, there have been multiple fatal officer-involved shootings, including the deaths of Kilyn Lewis, Rajon Belt-Stubblefield and Rashaud Johnson. The officer who killed Belt-Stubblefield, Matthew Neely, is facing charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter after being indicted by a grand jury.
There has been one officer-involved shooting so far this year, where an officer shot and killed a man who was attacking him with a knife during a mental health crisis.
In 2026, Aurora’s crime is following a national trend of decreasing crime, with property and violent crimes down 10.5%.
In the press release, the group says they don’t expect the city to agree with every criticism of the chief, but that their concerns shouldn’t “disappear into the machinery of city government without response.”
Since Chamberlain’s hiring, the Epitome of Black Excellence and likeminded community members, such as those with the Denver Aurora Community Action Committee, have consistently spoken at council meetings to ask for police oversight and reform, including replacing Chamberlain.
“Two years into Chief Chamberlain’s leadership, families and community members who have repeatedly appeared before their government are no longer willing to accept silence as engagement, acknowledgment as accountability, or public comment as a substitute for substantive dialogue,” the release says.
Previous protests over officer-involved shootings have shut down the council chambers and forced meetings to end or move online.