In what has become a dangerously bad habit, Aurora is searching for another chief of police.
It’s dangerous because the city’s large and deeply troubled police department has been devastated by sustained crime, rogue and self-serving union leaders, a worrisome number of malevolent or incompetent officers and a perilous lack of transparency and accountability.
The killing, maiming and abuse of Black people, the drunken passed-out cops in squad cars, rehired racists and pistol-whipping episodes eventually drew a state investigation. That resulted in a consent decree among Aurora, its police department and the Colorado attorney general’s office. The decree mandates that a third-party expert monitor Aurora’s well-documented problems that reach back more than a decade. “Third-party” however is not independent of the complex problem, despite being tabbed “independent monitor.”
It is a paid contractor from out of state that provides expertise and feedback on police reform efforts.
The department needs real independent oversight.
For years, the Aurora Police Department has been a cloaked, insular, virtually autonomous agency that’s been primarily marshaled by an overpowering police union, and what was previously a complicit civil service commission.
The police department has been pulled and pushed in every direction by a host of both well-intended and self-serving agendas.
Each time a new chief was hired, the public’s interests seem to have come last.
The department’s reputation, nationally, has now become so bad that a paid search just over a year ago turned up no one even remotely qualified for the job.
Current interim Chief Heather Morris has shown a great deal of consistency, skill and good faith toward showing the public that police can, and should, be trusted by the thousands of Black residents in Aurora. That, despite another recent episode of a Black man being needlessly shot and killed during an arrest.
Now Morris, too, is leaving for “personal reasons,” after being bad mouthed by some city lawmakers.
Rather than continue to diminish the department by continuing to pander to city council bullying, city administrators should make the next hire a public process.
The city should survey and take comments from the public about what they now want from police officers and from a police chief.
Aurora desperately needs to provide full transparency to the public about the challenges it has in providing police protection and public safety.
The public can see for themselves that local roads, and especially highways, have become lawless free-for-alls, plagued with road racing, and near demolition-derby disorder because of the astounding lack of patrol officers and enforcement.
The clear lack of visibility of police is an invitation for all kinds of criminal activity.
Equally, police rank and file need to be heard, outside of the political realm of unions.
The city must create a truly independent oversight entity among Aurora police to move ahead.
There can be no substitute for an entity whose sole charge is to represent the public’s interest in law enforcement and public safety — not the politicized engagement of city council, nor the logically self-serving actions of a police union, nor the engaged entity of city management.
A truly independent oversight board, even if it is only advisory, would install public faith, trust and a reliable foundation for solving problems.
Such a board or commission would be of great value if not in helping to hire a chief, but to ensure that a new chief is able to succeed.
This will be the seventh chief hired in five years. Clearly, Aurora is doing something wrong.
Trying something different is the only way to lead the city into doing this right.
Newark NJ was one of the worse police dept in the country till they reformed, now they are one of the best. Officers live in the area they patrol. They walk the beat and interact with the people and get to know them. They also use a unit that comes for people who have mental health issues and breakdowns. Aurora needs to use “Trauma to Trust” program. Newark is a roll model Aurora and every police dept needs to follow…
Aurora has had a similar program for years…
The Sentinel Blog keeps wanting to editorialize about the hiring of a new APD Chief over and over. I continue to state that any intelligent, qualified, professional Chief would be crazy to want this job. It doesn’t take long for any new Chief to discover that our recent police history and very few in the Aurora Community will support them. While so many important people in our Community will be nasty towards him/her. That nastiness charge will be led by this Sentinel Blog.
My advice, again, to any new hire is to come on board with the “Interim” tag, while you discover, for yourself, exactly the truth in what I’ve just stated.
I agree, that an independent oversight board is needed. If this is instated, we all need to allow it to work. It’s easy to make comments, but restraint is needed. I came from Houston and lived there when Acevedo was chief. He couldn’t succeed there either because of politics or constant micromanagement. It takes independent community oversight and restraint to succeed. It also takes a sincere effort on the part of department, union, management, and city council. At present the council concerns me the most!
I am trying to imagine an oversite Board which would meet with the approval of the Sentinel. I am imagining a Board of Candice Baileys. One full of police critics with no training or experience in policing trying to manage an emergency services department with 800 or so sworn officers, two unions, and 200 or so civilian employees. The ill-informed will be in charge. it will be like handing a loaded machine gun to chimps.
Unfortunately, the Sentinel continues to distort the facts. The pistol whipping incident was shown to be justified and anyone really involved knows that the Police Association and the FOP have very little power. If they had power, most of the chiefs selected would never have been in power. Further, it is due to the efforts of radicals and the political influence that the streets have become what they are. The emotional and exaggerated efforts of the Sentinel and the politically correct have resulted in the knee jerk SB217 bill that was hurriedly passed after the George Floyd death. That bill and the politically motivated prosecutions that have followed have led to the departure of thousands of good officers. Don’t get me wrong. Some prosecutions have been justified by the outrageous acts of officers. As a retired officer and a police trainer, no one is more critical of police actions than I am. I usually understand where the police strayed and the cause better than a citizen or a police chief. But, the Supreme Court made clear that officers make decisions in fast paced and uncertain situations. There are better to ways to do policing. You won’t ever see them put into use in any meaningful way. Police departments are generally run by a police politician who looks good on paper and is basically a “yes person” for the City manager. That police politician is usually picked for the ability to appear sympathetic to the community and reforming law enforcement. I mean that they must be smooth talkers who exude sincerity. Basically, a sociopath who has been successful in manicuring his/his own political career. That person is usually not versed in police tactics and training. That person usually has not previously fought battles within their own agency to improve training, tactics, or even police conduct toward the public. That person usually has little credibility with their own officers. So, the officers know that their leader really is faking that concern for the public and knows little about real policing. Nowadays, the officers also know that that leader is looking for ways to punish them to appear like a real reformer. This creates a fear to take any action when you know that your boss does not really support you and the politically motivated prosecutors are looking for cases they can prosecute to enhance their careers.
The environment today has made it extremely difficult for even a good chief. In Aurora, the chief has to buy into the previously allowed consent decree that is full of lies and contradictions. He has to police under the SB217 law that no one can explain. His officers know that the consent decree is mostly an expensive paperwork drill. The goals of proportionate racial policing are not possible in our present culture. So, a chief immediately has to show that he does not have the courage or integrity to tell the truth. Not a good start. Add to this, the understrength situation caused by the radical legislature and the media, and you have a very difficult situation. The recent shooting of Sonya Massey in Illinois highlights the hypocrisy that exists today. The radicals destroyed policing with exaggerations that affected all of law enforcement. As part of that they demanded extreme changes to law enforcement and put forth grandiose request for changes. All of the political moves in every area resulted in a loss of officers and a lowering of standards. In Aurora, suddenly the radicals felt that it was okay to lower standards. So, now you have an officer who has been through multiple departments who unnecessarily shoots a poor black woman with some boiling water.
Let me agree with the Sentinel in one regard. The public should be allowed to hear from all of those who want to be chief or those who have real ideas for improving law enforcement. I went before Council and suggested that the have those who want to be chief debate and present their ideas. That, of course will never really happen. What you get instead, is a carefully selected bunch of candidates who give you the same carefully selected comments on community involvement. They give vague concepts and often references to the same tired approaches that only temporarily address crime in select locations. When I watched the presentations by former Chief Wilson, again carefully selected as to questions, I was impressed with the City’s ability to control the event in such a way that the chief never had to address specifics or really show any knowledge of police work.
The City does need to address how to deal with crime in all ares of the City in a long term plan. I mean all parts of the City. I mean the speeding, the mailbox thefts, the thefts from your car in the driveway, and numerous crimes considered minor in the scope of things. I don’t just mean the high profile crimes like robberies, car thefts, and shootings. In doing a long term plan for all of the City, respectful and responsive relations with the citizens in all parts of the City are critical. I gave the City a plan that was not followed when I created the PAR program. A chief usually doesn’t have a plan. A chief usually hasn’t really looked at how to do policing in a better way. A chief has learned how to talk to advance his/her career. Ask them what they have learned and how to fix the problems.
The problem with a group to oversee the Department is in the selection of its members. You usually get people with an agenda but no real knowledge of the real problems. The fact that you are angry about black people being shot doesn’t give you any real insight into the reasons for the shootings. It doesn’t give you the understanding of what can be done to minimize those shootings. Often the shooting was justified but you simply don’t want to see that or to understand that. For instance, most of the lawsuits, injuries, and deaths are a result of poor training and supervision. Yet, we hire chiefs who know little about tactics or proper training. At any rate, The control group would need to know a lot about policing and where the problems lie. Obviously, most of the problems lie with having chiefs who don’t have any real knowledge or ideas gleaned from experience. Secondly, the problems lie with chiefs who are politically correct but who do not demonstrate realistic ethical values to their officers. Being a real police chief is hard work. It requires that you make sure that your officers are treated respectfully and are also held accountable in a realistic fashion. It means making sure that all of your supervisors are technically proficient and are daily giving guidance on tactics, laws, and ethical treatment of the citizenry. It doesn’t mean simply talking to citizen groups and writing long complicated policies and procedures.
In what realm is “pistol whipping justified” get the hell out of here. Proper training and consequences of accountability for violating department policy and the law should be the norm. Having been a resident for 22 years, I am tired of the police and their attitudes, this come from a person whose grand parents, parents, and siblings have all been in law enforcement. I took the route of attorney who sues corrupt departments like this.
A jury found it justified. As an attorney, I presume you understand that. Sorry, the Department never showed the video footage they seized from the businesses. It would have contradicted Chief Wilson’s drama show in her press conference. I would have to agree about corruption in the Chief’s office.
Lord, this guy is long winded.
I will abridge this for you:
“I applied fot the job of chief and didn’t get it.”
Lord, this guy is long winded.
I will abridge this for you:
“I applied for the job of chief and didn’t get it.”
Sure. Don’t look at the underlying problem with policing and the Chief’s position. I only considered the Chief’s job because I know the real problems in policing and not the emotional racism narrative that has been trotted out. Hopefully, the City will find someone with knowledge of the poor leadership culture that has existed at APD. If that happens, then the new Chief will only have to deal with the incredibly poor environment that the legislature created with SB217 and the politically motivated and unrealistic consent decree. You have to know something about a problem to fix not. I realize that it is easier to just make some emotional snap judgments and go on with.your life and complaining without trying to learn more.
“I only considered the Chief’s job because I know the real problems in policing and not the emotional racism narrative that has been trotted out.”
Well, aren’t you special. Losers are like that. Someone else is always to blame for their failures and inadequacies.
People win for many reasons. (Like getting appointed to a job) One of main reasons is that they are liked by those in power, and they are liked by those with money. Sometimes they themselves are people with power and money. You (and I) have neither and I assume that you have no friends with these gifts.
You seem like a nice enough guy, but you haven’t connected to reality in quite some time.
I have had the privilege of working with Mr. Black. He demanded excellence of himself and others. He was professional and uncompromisingly ethical. His uncompromising ethics and incredibly high personal standards for himself and others were off-putting to those who held themselves to lesser standards. He wopuld make an excellent Chief. He would drive himself tirelessly to make APD a model department. What he lacks in administrative experience he would make up for many fold in dedication to learning those tasks.