AURORA | Aurora police will be adding a high-ranking officer to oversee the Internal Affairs section as part of a plan approved by Aurora City Council at the Monday, Oct. 26, regular meeting.
Council members unanimously approved the measure, which will bring the number of commanders in the department — the third-highest rank in APD — from four to five. Three commanders are currently tasked with overseeing the department’s three districts, and a fourth oversees investigations.
Councilwoman Renie Peterson was absent from the meeting.
That fifth commander would solely oversee the Internal Affairs section, a move Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz has said will mean another seasoned officer will be available to handle complaints against officers as he tries to add more investigators to an increasingly high-profile unit.
The move has the support of the Aurora Police Association, the department’s largest union, but APA President Sgt. Bob Wesner told the Aurora Sentinel in July they had some concern.
“Whenever they create a new position, they should be adding a new officer to the entire department,” he told the Sentinel in July.
As long as the new commander position doesn’t mean fewer officers on the street, Wesner said the APA supports it.
In the past, the APA has butted heads with former police chief Dan Oates because the union felt the chief’s decision to add high-ranking officers came at the expense of lower-level officers.
Metz said he introduced the plan because cases that should only take weeks to investigate were taking months in part because the unit had just one lieutenant, two sergeants and an administrative technician.
Metz, calling that staffing “woefully low,” assigned Commander Terry Brown to oversee the unit and set about adding staff. Now, the unit has a commander, a lieutenant, two sergeants, two detectives and an administrative technician.
In an effort to make officers more comfortable going to the unit, Metz also moved IA from police headquarters to a new office a few miles away at 6 S. Abilene St.
Councilman Bob LeGare, the chair of the Public Safety committee, said he is in full favor of Metz’s changes.
The old setup was hardly ideal, he told the Sentinel in July.
Before the unit moved to Abilene Street, LeGare said officers who wanted to report something to internal affairs had to walk through the chief’s office at headquarters to get there.
“That just doesn’t sound very inviting to me for someone that might want to report something,” he said.
According City of Aurora spokesman Abraham Morales, the new position will cost the city around $16,000, which is the cost to move a captain position to a commander position.
— Aurora Sentinel Staff Writer Brandon Johansson contributed to this story.
Thirty-Thirtyseven Patrolmen on the street at any given time, [111 assigned to patrol?] and the chief believes the primary concern is to increase the Internal Affairs Division.
Put body cameras on ever Police Officer to reduce the need for increasing internal affairs and increase number of Officers on patrol.
they are working on just that. but people want accountability and the chiefs actions address this.