AURORA | Aurora is looking for a police chief, again.
Interim police chief Heather Morris and the city announced in a July 12 statement that Morris would not apply for the job as permanent chief of the Aurora Police Department, which has had six permanent and interim police chiefs in less than five years.
An open solicitation of applications for the job closed Friday at 5 p.m.
“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. “I’m really looking forward to that and helping in any way I can in a smooth transition.”
Despite being publicly called on to resign by Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky earlier this year, Morris said her decision was made for “personal reasons” and was not the result of pressure from Jurinsky.
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 amidst pressure from council members and police union leaders as well as allegations that she had mismanaged the department. Wilson has since 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 been 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.
The city is currently engaged in a consent decree pact with the state attorney general’s office to enact a reforms addressing what the state says are “patterns and practices” of abusive behavior.
Neither Morris nor the city offered a timeline for the hiring of Morris’ replacement, though Morris said she would remain in the position until that person is chosen.
well, well, well.
“Aurora Chief
Police Executive Research Forum
https://www.policeforum.org › aurora-chief
The current top salary for this position is $286,000, with an expected hiring range between $192,000 and $250,000. ”
And nobody wants the job. Gotta be a reason why. We all want more police on the job. We all demand a high standard of character from LEO. Somewhere between the citizens, the city council and the police themselves is the reason and solution.
I will do it for the low end of the salary range. I could not do worse than has been done recently.
Wait! The application deadline closes today at 5:00 PM? Strange how this wasn’t more widely announced, or could it be that there is no search process at all. It’s bad enough that it has taken the city this long to find a permanent chief, but not making a more prominent announcement is not a good way to do business.
Why would anyone duly trained to be a police chief want this job? It need not be explained to educated Aurora citizens who have been around for the past ten or so years. Not worth it for a quarter million per year each interim chief has decided over the years as stated in the article. That’s a lot of economic denial.
I hope Jason B. has already found his “man”. If so, I’ll predict, just as I did when Chief Morris took over, in these comments, they will not last very long. The bottom line is there is just too much vocal hate in every crevice in the Aurora Community. I get it, we are in real trouble to professional fill this position, long term.
It’s not that a man or woman wouldn’t want to be Chief or Police for the Aurora Police Department it’s that the City Council is slightly insane and they dictate how things are run and never have a Chiefs back.
why are we kidding ourselves, it’s the top Echelon of the APD that’s keeping a chief from being hired! Clean out the top brass that continue to CORRUPT our police dept. they want to and have been continuing the status quo, get rid of the top officials who have been around long pass their time and the good citizens of Aurora will get a police DEPARTMENT to be proud of.
why are you not showing my comments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the past, I applied for the Chief’s job. Although I had support from the Police Association, I knew that I would not make it past the initial screening by the company that makes recommendations to the City Manager. Generally, those companies are comprised of former chiefs who look for copies of themselves. I realized that even a good chief would have a difficult job doing what was needed to address the problems. There are a number of serious roadblocks. First, they would be looking for someone who would echo the party line about how great the consent decree was and someone who would not voice any disagreement. For the most part, managers look for “yes persons”. Those people put on a happy face and never admit the real problems. They are generally sociopaths, who are smooth talkers, and create a very likable facade. In the past, I wrote that Aurora did not need another politician chief. They are everywhere. They are the problem in law enforcement, as in all government.
Confucius said “A man with smiling countenance and glib tongue seldom has the public interest at heart”. It hasn’t changed in millennia. A Scythian proverb says “Wise men argue causes, fools decide them”. Recent studies have shown that many of the heads of major companies are sociopath personalities. The traits of those people are not conducive to the welfare of others.
In reality, Aurora faces a dilemma that few understand. If you select a person who will echo the popular narrative, you are picking someone without the courage to stand up and the ethics to guide the organization in an ethical manner. Aurora has long suffered from the type of ethical leadership that would not deal with bad attitudes and the lack of training and supervision that is needed. So, there is a Catch 22 here. Pick that person who is shiny and never had a blemish on their record by disagreeing and you pick a person who secretly cares only for themself. That person doesn’t have the courage to stand up in front of the troops and speak honesty and integrity with any credibility. Further, they are almost never technically proficient. That means the troops know that they were never a real police officer. They simply advanced quickly through their social skills. That means that they advanced their career while not seeking better ways to do the job. They realized that people simply make decisions based upon who they like. That is their skill.
To give you an idea how widespread this phenomenon is, look at SB217 passed by the Colorado legislature. It is vague, poorly written and punitive without cause. It drove thousands of good officers out of the job. It is still driving experienced officers out of the job. Was there any outcry from the police chiefs and sheriffs? No. They are silent. It is good for their careers to keep quiet while the communities become more dangerous.
Let us take another aspect of the problem. What is causing most of the criticism of law enforcement? The answer is use of force. Yet, the person selected will almost always be a person who is has advanced to an administrative position with only the basic academy training in use of force. They will look good on paper. They will know almost nothing about use of force. Yet, they will determine the type of training given and will judge whether use of force was reasonable and appropriate. If you add in the fact that they never stood up when things were wrong, you have a recipe for disaster. After each poor crowd control response, there is generally some admission that the troops had no confidence in their leadership and were never supplied with clear directions and supervision. The people in charge learn no lessons and will repeat the same errors over and over. The people who choose them will do the same and select the same type of leader over and over.
I can only hope that Aurora can learn a few lessons and look for someone who is technically proficient and who has shown some ethical backbone. The average chief does not fit those qualifications. It takes courage to say that the Attorney General’s report on Aurora PD was badly flawed and assigned racism where little was there. It takes courage to say that the legislature erred wildly with the knee jerk SB217 legislation. It takes courage to stand in front of the troops to demand respectful treatment of all citizens. It takes courage to tell your tactical people that we are going to look for better ways to do the job. Let us see if the City can break out of the regular mold and strive to look for better to ways to protect the citizens. If you look at any large city with its crime problems, you can see the future of Aurora. That is primarily due to the fact that the politician chiefs lack the knowledge, experience, and desire to find a better way to police. The answers are out here. the listeners are not.
“In the past, I applied for the Chief’s job.”
And didn’t get it.
This is the key to Don’s often long and rambling responses to news stories on the APD.
He dislikes those that win because they know how to play the game.
What we don’t like or or understand does not change the reality of how things actually work. People that obtain power, money and influence and keep it are often disliked, simply because they follow the path to success. Wishful thinking about a past, people or process that never existed isn’t productive. Being convinced that one’s precieved personal attributes outweigh the success of others is odd since it has little to do with reality.