Aurora council advances police chief’s plan for fifth commander

AURORA | A plan by Aurora police Chief Nick Metz to add a high-ranking officer to oversee the Internal Affairs section got initial from city council this week.

The plan, which would bring the number of commanders in the department — the third-highest rank in APD — from four to five. Three commanders are tasked with overseeing the department’s three districts, and a fourth oversees investigations.

That fifth commander would solely oversee the Internal Affairs section, a move Metz has said will mean another seasoned officer to handle complaints against officers as he tries to add more investigators to an increasingly high-profile unit.

Under the city charter, Metz needs city council’s approval to add a commander. Council’s Public Safety Committee backed the idea this week and it will likely go before the full council in the coming weeks.

The move has the support of the Aurora Police Association, the department’s largest union, but APA President Sgt. Bob Wesner said they have some concern.

As long as the new commander position doesn’t mean fewer officers on the street, Wesner said 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. 

“Whenever they create a new position, they should be adding a new officer to the entire department,” he said.

Wesner said the department is looking for ways to add more officers and as long as that happens, the union will back the changes.

Metz took over in March and within a few weeks announced plans to change Internal Affairs.

Cases that should 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 said.

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.

In a statement last month, police said further changes could be coming to the unit.

“Policy and procedures continue to be reviewed with the intent of improving the quality, transparency, and timeliness of investigations,” the statement said.

The bureau can be reached at 303-739-6072.