AURORA | A majority of city lawmakers banned police and fire departments from lobbying Monday and gave a first vote of approval to outlaw police from executing so-called no-knock search warrants.
As part of broad police reforms at city hall, lawmakers gave final approval to prevent the Aurora Police Department and Aurora Fire Rescue from “directly or indirectly” expending dollars or staff on lobbying governments. However, council members immediately allowed the departments to maintain memberships in professional organizations that advocate on policies — a main concern of conservative lawmakers.
Councilmembers Dave Gruber, Francoise Bergan and Marsha Berzins opposed the measure, which will now become law.
“It’s killing police morale,” Berzins said of the police reforms. “My question is, what are we going to do when we don’t have any police left?”
A majority of lawmakers also gave first approval to ban no-knock warrants. Again, Gruber, Bergan and Berzins opposed the law.
City lawmakers will have to vote one more time to finalize the ban.
This proposal, introduced by Councilmember Angela Lawson, would ban Aurora Police Department officers from executing a search warrant of a person’s home or business without first announcing their presence and authority. Aurora police officers use the power sparingly and in cases mostly involving drugs and weapons, according to the department’s data.
“They’re really not necessary. They’re not,” Lawson said Monday night of no-knock warrants.
Lawson introduced the proposal because of Taylor’s death during a Louisville, Kentucky police raid this year. Taylor was shot eight times and killed in her apartment when three plainclothes police officers executed a search warrant looking for a pair of alleged drug dealers. They never announced their presence.
During the Monday council meeting, city managers reiterated Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson’s stance that the nixing no-know warrants would put cops at risk and hamstring some operations.
Wilson has previously said some suspects might reach for weapons to defend themselves if officers have to announce their presence when executing a warrant.
Deputy City Manager Jason Batchelor said police officers would change their tactics if lawmakers give the plan another round of approval. Police could lock down an immediate area and order the person out of their home, he said. If the suspect didn’t comply, police would assess the situation and make a decision whether to storm the home.
Lawson’s intentions are to protect residents from needless death in a chaotic raid, she said.
Batchelor said that, while APD officers receive warrants based on evidence of drugs or weapons in a home, they don’t have advance intelligence whether innocent people are inside until police are on the ground.
Gruber, who voted against the proposal, said the plan “will put officer’s lives at risk.”
According to Wilson, APD officers announce their presence in the vast majority of warrant executions.
Judges approved 10 Aurora no-knock warrants since 2018, according to APD data requested by Lawson, but APD leadership says the department only executed five of those warrants as no-knock raids.
In the same period, APD executed 315 “knock and announce” warrants.
During the Monday study session, city lawmakers also advanced a proposal to regulate dangerous animals, including dogs.
The plan wouldn’t change the city’s contentious breed-restricted ordinance outlawing American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers and Staffordshire bull terriers.
Alongside those rules, the city would set up a process for a judge to decide whether an animal is “potentially dangerous,” “dangerous” or “aggressive.”
An owner of a dog deemed to be dangerous would have to secure a permit. The dog would have to be muzzled and leashed when outdoors or otherwise safely confined, along with a slew of other requirements, for at least two years.
The plan would also set up a hearing process for neighbors complaining about barking dogs or wandering animals.