AURORA | Aurora’s top administrator has picked a veteran commander from the Los Angeles Police Department as chief of its beleaguered police force.
Todd Chamberlain would be the seventh person to lead the city’s approximately 700-person department in five years. He is white, and Aurora has a narrow minority-majority made up of 51% people of color, according to Census records.
If his selection for the $250,000-a-year job is ratified, as expected, next Monday by a majority of Aurora’s 11-member city council, he would be sworn in Sept. 9.
“Todd is a seasoned professional who has a deep understanding of fair, ethical, consistent and constitutional policing,” Aurora City Manager Jason Batchelor said in a news release Wednesday.
Leaders of the Aurora branch of the NAACP were critical of the process leading to Chamberlain’s appointment, saying it lacked community input. The group’s members have publicly made repeated requests for input in the selection of a new chief.
“The exclusion of community voices from such a critical decision undermines the trust and transparency needed between the Aurora Police Department and the diverse communities it serves,” Aurora NAACP president Omar Montgomery said in a statement.
Aurora police and the city government are currently part of a consent decree requiring police reforms after an investigation by the Colorado attorney general into its practices. The probe found a series of “patterns and practices” of excessive force, especially against people of color.
Chamberlain worked for the LAPD from 1984 through 2018, when he retired as a commander who oversaw about 1,800 people across six divisions in that department. He since has worked as Chief of Police for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LASPD) and, more recently, public-safety consultant and a lecturer at California State University Los Angeles.
The Sentinel will be reporting on his record in his previous jobs.
Batchelor lauded Chamberlain’s “executive skill set” and “track record of partnering with community leaders to reduce crime, enhance community safety, and establish open, honest and transparent dialogue with community members.”
“Todd’s experience shows he understands the complex challenges our diverse community faces, and he will bring a fresh perspective to our ongoing work in implementing comprehensive public safety changes at APD and our commitment to progress across the city as a whole,” he said.
Chamberlain could not be reached for comment, but was quoted in a news release saying, “I look forward to embracing the challenges and successes ahead, with a focus on fostering strong relationships, building trust, and ensuring collaboration at every level. Together, we can make a lasting impact on the safety and well-being of our city.” He is scheduled to speak with the news media on Thursday morning in conversation that will be livestreamed on AuroraTV.org and the city’s YouTube Channel.
In the meantime, the city’s announcement Wednesday noted that he has experience establishing and overseeing policy and procedures involving the use of police force and police handling of unhoused residents — both issues for which Aurora police have been fiercely criticized.
Current interim police Chief Heather Morris announced in July that she would not apply to become permanent chief of the department.
“What I’m really excited about is that, after over two years of having an interim chief, at the completion of this process, the department will have a chief who’s not interim,” Morris told the Sentinel in July. “I’m really looking forward to that and helping in any way I can in a smooth transition.”
Morris took the reins from interim chief Art Acevedo, who in December 2022 took over from interim chief Dan Oates. That appointment came after a national search for a new permanent chief turned up no viable candidates in October 2022.
Oates was offered the temporary job when chief Vanessa Wilson was forced from the position in April 2022 amid pressure from council members and police union leaders as well as allegations that she had mismanaged the department. Wilson since has filed a lawsuit against the city for wrongful firing.
Wilson was appointed chief in August 2020 after a few months of holding the interim title. She replaced former Chief Nick Metz, who retired in late 2019 as controversy was beginning to swirl around the officer-involved death of Elijah McClain.
Another Aurora police staffer, Paul O’Keefe, was appointed interim chief but soon stepped down under scrutiny for his handling of a police officer who passed out drunk in his squad car and was permitted to remain on the force.
The Aurora Police Department has had to grapple with a long list of controversies since Metz’s departure, mostly stemming from allegations of officers using excessive force against residents of color.
Members of the NAACP said they intend to learn more about the process by which Chamberlain was picked, and to question him about his views on the consent decree, holding officers accountable for misconduct, community policing — especially in communities of color — and other public safety issues.
Montgomery told the Sentinel Wednesday he was disappointed, yet unsurprised that Aurora bypassed a public vetting process of its new police chief.
“When it comes to the Aurora Police Department it’s always something,” he said. “It’s just one thing after another.”
Maybe that’s part of Aurora’s problem of everyone seems to hate everyone else and want’s to have a say in everything our elected officials are supposed to do. Like DEI gone amuck.
Omar Montgomery or the NAACP should have no more say in hiring any City official than I do. And I should have no say. Just another stab of Aurora radicals trying to assume more power than is justified.
I appreciate, this time, hiring a new police chief within the normal way and not in the public or the Sentinel Blog. Let’s hope he is an effective chief and realizes the Aurora political swamp that he is beginning to swim. I wish him good luck.
Why should the NAACP have any say in who the city hires for Police Chief. They should be more interested in finding ways to convince black youth not to carjack, shoplift, gangbang and commit other crimes. They should also reach out to adult black males in order to reduce the number of domestic abuse incidents. The NAACP has excused and covered for black crime for years, so they should not expect a place at the table when it comes to the hiring of a chief law enforcement official.
Let’s say the quiet parts out loud ..he said at the press conference the selection process hasn’t worked out the last few times(which the city manager did without community input) he’s not wrong, so why leave out the community again ? Use of force will always be part of law enforcement? That’s a very problematic statement that should telling to the community…I’m willing to give the man a chance but his words don’t match someone whose committed to reform and is gearing for another McClain /Lewis Tragedy….
😆 🤣 😂 The Aurora Sentinel take on this? “He is white.” In the minds of leftists like those at the Sentinel, qualifications don’t matter. Race, sex, sexual orientation, etc. are the highest of qualifiers in their pea sized brains. The Sentinel & much of other media have proven over & over that you don’t need to be an actual journalist to work in media.
7 in 5 years. that’s more than one a year. Guess we’ll see how this one goes…looking for new police recruits at the October Trump rally isn’t exactly an auspicious start. Didn’t the new chief make a statement justifying it? saying APD is apolitical organization. Then why go to a *political* rally- to recruit new cops?