AURORA | Aurora’s police chief has created a new community advisory group amid recent political pressure from a changed City Council majority seeking to establish an independent police oversight mechanism.
The change and review comes even as the department remains under a sweeping state consent decree prompted by findings of excessive force against people of color.
Police Chief Todd Chamberlain on Thursday announced the formation of the Chief’s Community Response Team, a panel of residents, faith leaders, business owners and advocates who will meet bimonthly with police leadership to discuss public safety priorities, department initiatives and critical incidents.
“Our goal is simple: to strengthen our understanding of the community while ensuring residents are informed about the operations, training and personnel dedicated to serving and protecting them,” Chamberlain said in a statement.
The move comes as police oversight again moves toward the spotlight at city hall. A new majority on the Aurora City Council has signaled interest in creating some form of independent civilian oversight to monitor the police department, an idea that has surfaced repeatedly in recent years but has yet to materialize.
The effort, led by city council members Gianina Horton and Amy Wiles, has held three public meetings focused on what kind of independent police oversight structures exist across the country, and which would serve Aurora best.
“I wasn’t aware from a council perspective that this group was being formed,” Wiles said. “I had heard brief discussions about it as a former member of the community advisory council for the consent decree. I think that community engagement and voices are always important and should be heard by all levels of city leadership, including APD.”
Wiles said she would suggest a more open process would benefit the move.
“I wish that this group had been created with more transparency with regards to community input,” Wiles said. “It’s great to have community leaders who agree with your decisions, but equally important are the voices who don’t agree, and I’m not sure if this group will provide those varying voices without any insight into how members were chosen.”
Just last week, they hosted a meeting with a special presenter, the Fort Worth Police Monitor Bonycle Sokunbi, who spoke about her relationship and oversight of the Fort Worth Police Department.
Aurora police have been operating under a consent decree since 2021, when then-Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser imposed the mandate following a state investigation that found the department engaged in “patterns and practices” of using excessive force, particularly against people of color. The decree was triggered in part by the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, who died after being stopped by police while unarmed.
The consent decree requires broad reforms in training, accountability systems, use-of-force policies, data collection and community engagement. It is overseen by an independent monitor and is scheduled to last five years.
Chamberlain said the new Community Response Team is intended to “usher in a better unified communication pipeline” between police and residents and to foster “meaningful, candid conversations about challenging incidents and hard topics.”
Members of the new panel include: Malissa Murdock, Judith Padilla, Rick McLean, Pastor Samuel James, Salvation Army Lt. Carl Esquivel, Brandon Wright, Tyg Taylor, Rachel Walker, Tramell Thomas, Diana Higuera, Harry Budisidharta, Jen Dubrow, Pastor Al Combs, Pastor Debbie Stafford and Paul Galloway.
“It was important for me to join the Chief’s Community Response Team because it allows members to better understand the facts of incidents,” Esquivel said in a statement.
According to police, the team was selected in January after the chief’s office solicited interest from community leaders through its Community Relations Section.
The meetings are not open to the public, police said.
The group will receive current information following critical incidents when appropriate and will publish a public summary report after its first year, according to Aurora police spokesperson Joe Moylan.
Former police Chief Nick Metz assembled his own community panel, composed of police officers and select community members. The structure was frequently criticized by community leaders who said it was not a substitute for independent oversight nor a transparent light into police policy making.
The new panel is in addition to the city’s previous Community Advisory Council, which was created in 2022 as part of the consent decree process. That group was intended to give feedback to police from key minority and immigrant communities, review reform efforts, provide feedback and relay information to the broader community.
It’s unclear what the meeting status of that committee is and who currently sits on it.
The advisory council was frequently at odds with police and city officials and the independent monitor over its role and authority.
Some members said they were sidelined or required to sign non-disclosure agreements despite not having access to confidential materials. Others criticized what they described as a lack of transparency in how reform progress was rated.
Some members of the CAC were particularly critical of how the city handled Chamberlain’s hiring 18 months ago, which was conducted without public notice or consultation with the advisory panel. Members argued that selecting a chief without community input undercut the spirit of reform.
Several former members publicly have repeatedly called for a fully independent, city-funded civilian oversight office to replace or supplement the monitor once its contract ends. That proposal is now resurfacing as the new council majority weighs options for permanent oversight beyond the life of the consent decree.
“I hope it’s people that will give him honest feedback in regards to whatever is taking place and being a voice for the community on that task force,” said State Conference President of the NAACP Omar Montgomery.
Montgomery, who was the former president of the Aurora NAACP and one of the original members of the Community Advisory Council, said that the NAACP meets with Chamberlain and Aurora Fire Chief Alec Oughton quarterly and that Chamberlain regularly reaches out to NAACP members during emergencies and is always available when they call him.
“There are a lot of times we don’t agree on certain things, certain approaches, certain tactics, but (Chamberlain) continues to call and continues to give us updates, and when we call, he answers,” Montgomery said.
Combs, who is on the new community advisory team, is also an active member of the Aurora NAACP. Pastor Thomas Mayes is now the president of the Aurora NAACP and continues to serve on the community advisory council under the consent decree.
Montgomery said that sometimes it’s better for him or other members not to be part of community groups such as this new Community Response Team and the advisory council because they are sometimes asked to sign nondisclosure agreements, or NDAs, making it hard to speak to the community about the work they are doing with the police department.
Community Advisory Council members are required to sign NDAs, while they also act as a conduit between the police and the community, but the new Community Response Team is not.
“One of the primary reasons the Chief formed this team is to ensure accurate, timely messaging is relayed to our community, using diverse stakeholders and representatives to help deliver that message,” Sergeant Matthew Wells-Longshore said.
Several former members publicly have repeatedly called for a fully independent, city-funded civilian oversight office to replace or supplement the consent decree’s independent monitor system once its contract ends. That proposal is now resurfacing as the new council majority weighs options for permanent oversight beyond the life of the consent decree.
The new panel echoes another Aurora committee, the Key Community Response Team, created by diversity and equity activist Barbara Shanon Bannister. That group advised police and city officials on matters of race and diversity and drew input from what were described as “key” members of ethnic and immigrant communities. The purpose of that team, served as a conduit between law enforcement and underrepresented communities, mirrors the mission outlined for Chamberlain’s newly announced panel.
Unlike the consent decree’s Community Advisory Council, which was formally tied to the state-mandated reform process and reported to the independent monitor, the Chief’s Community Response Team will meet directly with police leadership and is housed within the department.
The department said the new citizen panel will focus on education, relationship-building and dialogue about policing practices and public safety concerns. It did not specify how the group’s recommendations, if any, would influence policy decisions.
The last paragraph suggests that input to this closed-door group will all come from the APD. No mention of the group providing insight on community concerns to Chief Chamberlain or department leadership. Debbie Stafford’s participation is the only bright spot in an otherwise self-serving panel.
I think this is a load of crap. Aurora police does nothing for the community. I live at 1180 yosimite st in an apartment complex. We have many fentanyl dealers living there. Many persons have reported it to police and our apt land lords and no one will do anything about it. We have drug addicts stealing everything in site, we have drugged out zombies knocking on apt doors at 4 am trying to hide behind the door to pounce on you if you open the door. If you open your windows you got fentanyl smokers at you window in the alley blowing there drug smoke in the window. We have drug addicts drilling the locks out of doors to break in but when you call and report it in progress. The cops will drive past at 40 mph and not stop and investigate it. Most of these fentanyl dealers are on housing assistance and our tax dollars pay for them to live there. However no one ever investigates it.