AURORA | As the City of Aurora enters the final phase of its five-year Consent Decree, progress has been shown in most areas across the Aurora Police Department and Aurora Fire Rescue, but data transparency and community trust continue to challenge full compliance.
“My office continues to work closely with the consent decree monitor and the city, and while I am pleased that Aurora continues to make incremental progress on the consent decrees’ mandates, more progress must be made,” General Attorney Phil Weiser said in an email. “The monitor has repeatedly highlighted concerns about APD’s data collection and reporting systems and lack of progress in implementing updated data systems. The consent decree mandates can’t be satisfied without APD making more progress on these essential systems.”
The Consent Decree, imposed by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in 2021, followed investigations into the Aurora Police Department’s excessive use of force and discriminatory practices, particularly against people of color. Triggered in part by the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, who died at the hands of police and rescuers after being stopped, unarmed, the decree mandates broad reforms in training, accountability, use-of-force policies, data systems and community engagement.
“Crime fighting is a part of that, but the first goal is public safety,” NAACP President Omar Montgomery said. “The overall goal is that we all want the same thing. We want a city of Aurora that’s safe, where people can work, live and thrive and know that their families are safe.”
The decree is enforced by an independent monitor, IntegrAssure, a paid contractor that works alongside city staff and public safety leaders to monitor and ensure progress. Aurora has paid IntegrAssure more than $3.1 million as of January.
IntegrAssure’s Jeff Schlanger, who oversees and coordinates most of the Aurora reform goals, reviews and helps guide projects such as training and developing new police policies.
According to the most recent Reporting Period Eight — from Aug. 16, 2024 to Feb. 15, 2025 — 57 of 78 mandates (73%) are now compliant, matching the previous review period. However, progress has slowed in some areas, according to the report:
• 18 mandates are still only partially fulfilled, particularly in officer training, data analysis and transparency.
•Three mandates are on a “cautionary track,” involving structured compliance tracking, enforcement stop analysis and officer accountability.
Completion of mandates by department
• The Civilian Service Center has achieved full compliance.
• Aurora Fire Rescue has met 17 of 19 mandates.
• The Aurora Police Department has 19 of 47 mandates not yet fully compliant.
One main barrier to full compliance is the police department’s inconsistent collection and analysis of data involving enforcement actions by police and potential episodes of racial bias.
SWAT overhaul after Kilyn Lewis shooting
The May 2024 fatal officer-involved shooting of Kilyn Lewis triggered a full review of the police department’s Special Weapons And Tactics team. The outcome involved multiple modifications to help improve oversight, reduce risk and ensure deployments are strategic and justified.
Lewis was fatally shot by SWAT Officer Michael Dieck while being arrested in an apartment parking lot. Lewis was wanted on a warrant linked to a shooting earlier in May involving a homeless man Lewis was accused of shooting and injuring. That case has become a regular point of protests at every City Council meeting since June.
Some of the new changes include a checklist to help decide if a warrant is high-risk, required approval from top-level supervisors before SWAT can be called out, and a form to make sure every SWAT request is clearly recorded, reviewed and matches the department’s goals.
The department also changed rules involving SWAT officers advancing on people in barricaded vehicles. Now, SWAT is required to try to order the people to come out first, according to police documents. SWAT is now also required to have a dedicated Less-Lethal Operator to use less lethal tools like a taser on every mission, along with greater use of drones and remote breaching to reduce officer exposure.
In addition, SWAT officers are now also required to undertake more training.
An officer retention policy now requires a review for officers involved in multiple shootings, the report said. Officers with more than one shooting on their records will now undergo a case-by-case review to stay in the SWAT unit. The shootings will be evaluated for circumstances, overall performance history, wellness and fitness for duty, and impact on community trust.
Dieck was removed from the SWAT unit after the Lewis shooting, the Sentinel previously reported.
Team culture shifted from having a top-down approach to management toward a collaborative and communicative approach, according to the IntegrAssure review. Instead of imposing changes on the team, the team is involved in voicing input for changes, which has also built morale and operational focus, according to the report.
Ending racial bias in policing
Throughout the seventh reporting period, there were compliance issues involving Contact Data Collection. In many cases, officers failed to complete the required forms correctly, with one incident involving the intentional mislabeling of an individual’s race, which raised concerns about data reliability and potential bias, Schlanger reported.
The department was also dealing with an outdated data system and had to work with recording contacts manually while they waited for the new system. Schlanger said in the report that he worked closely with the police department to identify issues and develop a real-time dashboard for analyzing CDC data.
The police department hired a business intelligence analyst and data scientist to improve data processes and analysis. New reporting for police contacts began Feb. 22, which will be reviewed and released in reporting period nine of the Consent Decree. Chamberlain showed the number of contacts doubling from 3,000 contacts with civilians in February to 6,000 in March, during a study session April 7.
Contact data collection compliance for non-enforcement interactions, such as field interviews or community contacts, remains undetermined for 2024 and will be reviewed in the next reporting cycle, the report said.
Another significant development in the report was the police department’s selection of Axon as its new data management vendor. The transition is expected to enhance the department’s capacity to analyze contact data collection, though the success of this change will depend on how well Axon’s systems integrate with existing oversight mechanisms, Schlanger said in the report.
Force Review Board reforms
A major focus of the consent decree and expected changes focus on incidents of police using force when contacting or arresting people they come in contact with.
Incidents of use of force are categorized, with Tier Three being the most serious.
Investigations into Tier Two incidents were the most backlogged for this reporting period.
In an effort to streamline and strengthen oversight of use-of-force cases, Chamberlain revised its Force Review Board process by splitting Tier Two cases into two types, those resulting in minor injuries and others that required medical treatment.
Minor-injury cases were reviewed at the police district level to help reduce the backlog and shorten the adjudication time.
A post-adjudication review now assesses officer performance trends, ensuring that broader issues are addressed through training, supervision or discipline.
More serious cases of allegations of abuse of force are examined by command level investigations.
As the Consent Decree enters its final two years, Aurora Police and city officials face critical tasks.
The Monitor has signaled that while APD is no longer on a “wrong track,” it must accelerate reforms to meet the goals of the decree. The next review period will assess improvements in data systems, enforcement disparities and racial bias prevention, Schlanger reported.
Police Pursuits
Schlanger and IntegrAssure also pointed to a recent department change in vehicle pursuit policy. The change allows officers to chase suspected stolen vehicles and drunk drivers, which previously, was prohibited, except under specific conditions. The change gives officers more flexibility, while also giving them and their supervisors more responsibility to make safe decisions during high-risk situations, Schlanger said in the report.
Officers walk a thin line deciding if the benefits of catching the suspect are worth the risks involved, such as crashes that could harm or kill innocent people, as well as police. Officers must constantly re-evaluate the situation as it unfolds, and supervisors must keep close watch to ensure that public safety is the top priority, the report said.
To help manage the risk, Schlanger said the city should install updated dash cameras in all patrol vehicles to help recover stolen cars more efficiently using license plate scanning technology.
The technology will also give department heads a clear picture of the officers’ decisions and whether rules were followed. Schlanger said the dash cameras can also help protect officers by providing footage that could back up their actions and be used for training, helping the department learn from real situations.
The report said the department is still developing new training based on this updated policy. While the policy itself is nearly complete, its real impact will depend on how well officers are trained, how closely pursuits are supervised, and whether tools like dash cams are used to improve transparency and safety. Schlanger said he will continue to watch how the new policy plays out to ensure it’s being used responsibly.
After it all ends
“This is a city that is going through a lot of pain,” Montgomery said, referring to years of protests and scrutiny around how police treat the public, especially Black people and people of color. “This is a city that is still trying to find its way toward healing.”
Mayor Mike Coffman, Montgomery and Weiser have all stated that when the consent decree ends, the city of Aurora will continue with an outside monitor to evaluate the Aurora Police Department and Fire Rescue going forward.
Montgomery and Weiser have repeatedly lobbied for a change in police structure that incorporates some kind of independent oversight of the police department. Montgomery told the Sentinel previously that he is looking at ways that could happen, including a request of voters.
“We will continue to work with Aurora on the consent decree,” Weiser said in the email. “It is critical that the city must have an independent police monitor in place when the consent decree ends. A permanent structure for independent review of the police department would help ensure that reform, accountability and transparency continue, and that the city is responsive to community concerns.”
Montgomery said he is happy with the direction the Consent Decree is going and with the work Schlanger has done, but he sees a need for more input from the community. He said that the only information he receives is what people who call the NAACP tell him. Not everyone calls the NAACP and it is hard to know if there are people in the community who have opinions that haven’t been heard.
He made it clear he had no complaint at the time; his only request was to allow some way to hear the community clearly about their opinions.
“It’s not just holding police accountable for police abuse cases,” Montgomery said. “It’s about getting to a space, which is what I see the consent decree as, where we all work together to try to keep the city safe and prevent crimes from happening. That’s my overall hope for this consent decree, which is why I think it’s imperative that we find out the culture within the department and how those who are encountered by the police feel.”
I hope the next report goes well for the police department. I believe that the new chief is trying to change management techniques to more collaboration and bottom-up input, and he has a strong commitment to data collection and review. I understand why his hiring was met with skepticism, but I hope he is successful in meeting all the measures in the consent decree. The city needs to heal!
No matter what you change in written policy and recording methods, it comes down to integrity and a chief that institutes proper, adequate, consistent, and regular training. The Consent Decree is a paperwork drill. The problem is that Aurora has long had a broken promotional system and chiefs who failed to care about training and ethics and who maintained dishonest yes men as their staff. The result of having a staff that was political with little professional knowledge and experience is that training was not done and not reinforced. Further, professional ethics were never reinforced on a daily level by supervisors who knew that they had support from a staff that was ethical and a staff that cared about reinforcing professional training. Layers of overview will only slow law enforcement down to where they can justify what little they actually do. The officers will have to be a computer to keep track of the laundry list of guidelines that have to be considered before taking action. If you are happy with a heavily regulated police department that does little to curb crime in your neighborhood, then fine. The professional standards are something that are reinforced daily by supervisors who train and demonstrate ethical conduct daily as an example to their officers. If that professional conduct and commitment to real training is not demonstrated daily by the upper staff, then you will never have a professional department. You should understand that, in general, poorly trained officers become poorly trained supervisors and chiefs. So, law enforcement constantly reinvents the wheel and learns virtually nothing from past mistakes. If you know something about law enforcement and you ask the Consent Monitor or a chief specific questions about “best practices”, you will find them almost as misguided as the general public. However, their answers will fool the public and look good on paper. I suppose in today’s world, that is good enough.