In a world stunned and frightened by seemingly endless news of police dubiously shooting black Americans and, now, innocent police officers being gunned down in sick revenge killings, Aurora finds itself an enviable place.

In the wake of a string of tragedies across the country recently, resulting in dead and injured black Americans and big-city officers, the Aurora City Council issued a letter of support earlier this month for Aurora’s men and women in blue. But police and the public need more than kind words right now.

It’s not that Aurora police haven’t had incidents where a very few officers have made questionable calls or whose behavior was suspect. And, sadly, some of those incidents have resulted in citizen deaths or injuries at the hands of police.

Even for a large department responsible for public safety in an urban area, dubious incidents have been rare, and Aurora police have been relatively forthcoming about the tragedies.

“Relatively” is the key word here.

Nine months after a veteran and highly esteemed Aurora SWAT officer on March 6, 2015 shot and killed Naeschylus Vinzant — an unarmed black man being sought for a parole violation — a grand jury decided the officer should not face criminal charges.

Nine months. Had the jury decided otherwise, it would have taken months or even years more to settle a trial. The grand jury announcement on the Vinzant shooting came earlier this year.

But even after more than a year since the shooting, numerous questions are still unanswered.

Even in a community as progressive as Aurora, it takes too long for the public to learn what happened, and what the police department and community might do to prevent similar deaths and injuries.

Aurora’s Police Chief Nick Metz has taken a regional leadership position in persuading communities to hold frank conversations about how residents can reduce the risk of run-ins with police and how police can keep from killing blacks and others when they interact with them. It’s a good and important start.

But the key to helping the public understand how civilians are inadvertently killed and maimed by police depends on transparency and speed. Nine months is far too long to tell police how a police-involved homicide went down. And as investigations drag on, it’s important to tell the public what is known, and specifically why there aren’t answers sooner.

There’s a lot of goodwill in Aurora among a wide range of ethnic and cultural groups, and police have enjoyed the benefits of that when they’re under scrutiny. Similarly, Aurora police are by and large an ethical, well-trained, professional and keenly compassionate group of officers who deserve the accolades they receive.

But nothing builds trust and diffuses angst better than transparency and expediency when it comes to questionable police incidents.

While the city has created a type of police oversight panel, it’s too inside and too powerless to fend off serious police scrutiny and doubt. Aurora should move to create a truly independent, engaged and accountable oversight position or agency whose job is to deliver accurate and speedy information to the public.

Aurora residents and police have so far been fortunate on several levels, but that luck is not enough to protect police and the public.

Creating a new system now, collaboratively with police, prosecutors, defenders and the community, will immediately build a degree of trust and credibility for everyone that won’t be possible if an event happens that makes everyone in the city wish they hadn’t waited.