Aurora has repeatedly learned the hard way that police cannot police themselves.
Still, years after the city’s trust in law enforcement was shattered, the Aurora City Council still has not delivered what the community was promised and desperately needs — a truly independent, empowered system to oversee, regulate and hold the Aurora Police Department accountable.
The history of APD makes the case undeniable. Internal affairs reviews, command-level investigations and disciplinary processes have repeatedly failed to catch misconduct early, stop patterns of abuse or impose consequences that match the harm done.
The 2019 death of Elijah McClain stands as the most devastating example, but it is far from the only one. When police are asked to investigate their own colleagues, the result is predictable. The request, or even demand, is met with hesitation, minimization, and too often, exoneration. No profession should be trusted with unchecked self-policing, especially one granted the extraordinary power to detain, injure or kill.
Nor can Aurora rely on local prosecutors to fill that accountability gap. The 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, under then–District Attorney George Brachler, failed to find criminal fault in Elijah McClain’s death.
It wasn’t until Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser prompted a substantial investigation that the public was made aware of what was long suspected. The investigation found that Aurora police had for years exhibited “patterns and practices” of using excessive force, especially on people of color.
Past decisions to overlook or justify excessive force complaints severely damaged public confidence and underscored a fundamental conflict in the system. Prosecutors work daily with police officers, depend on them to build cases and win convictions, and are institutionally disincentivized from aggressively pursuing charges against them. Even when prosecutors act in good faith, the appearance of bias alone erodes trust.
The practice is unfair to the officers and the public.
Credible oversight cannot come from offices so deeply intertwined with the department they are supposed to scrutinize.
Aurora once understood this. In 2021, a previous City Council and former City Manager Jim Twombly pressed forward with a serious, credible plan to establish a substantial civilian police oversight system. That effort was grounded in months of work by the Community Police Task Force, a group that included respected Black community leaders, educators and activists who immersed themselves in the complexities of police policy, discipline and national oversight models. Their recommendations were not radical. They were informed, careful and aligned with what national experts consistently say works.
The Task Force called for an independent Office of Police Accountability, Transparency and Transformation. It was not to be a toothless “monitor,” but a watchdog with real authority, including subpoena power. it would have the ability to compel police records and testimony.
The committee or commission would have the capacity to investigate critical incidents and civilian complaints independently. And, crucially, it would have a role in adjudicating discipline when existing systems fail. Experts across the country have been clear that without these powers, oversight bodies are little more than suggestion boxes.
Transparency without enforcement is theater.
But the plan was derailed and ultimately killed after far-right council members were elected later in 2021. What followed was a predictable delay, dilution and retreat. Aurora was left with the trappings of reform but without its substance.
Years later, the city still lacks an oversight structure capable of meaningfully checking police power.
This failure is even more indefensible given that Aurora remains under a state-mandated consent decree. Oversight is not optional in that context. It is essential. Implementation of the decree demands rigorous, independent monitoring to ensure that reforms are not only adopted on paper but embedded in daily practice. Leaving that responsibility primarily to the police department itself is an invitation to backsliding and quiet noncompliance.
It could be that police are making huge strides, but unless the public can question and trust the news, it does neither the police nor the community any good.
At its core, this is about safety, legitimacy and trust. Effective policing depends on community cooperation. Cooperation depends on trust. And trust cannot exist when residents believe — with good reason — that officers who abuse their authority will be shielded by the very system meant to restrain them.
Aurora does not need to reinvent the wheel. The blueprint already exists in the task force recommendations. The city has studied other models, heard from national experts and lived through the consequences of inaction.
What it no longer lacks is political will. At least two city lawmakers, newly elected, have shown a keen interest in moving the issue of independent police oversight forward.
The cost of delay is measured not just in lawsuits or headlines, but in lives and legitimacy. Aurora cannot afford more half-measures. The council must finally deliver real oversight that is independent in structure, empowered in law and worthy of the public’s trust.
Since APD has shown that it has serious training deficiencies, evidenced by questionable tactics resulting in police shootings, it is reasonable to believe that oversight is necessary. The devil is in the details. First, the City is really good at having brief highly structured meetings that look like you have input but do not allow any real discussion. More importantly, persons involved in an oversight committee would more than likely be well intentioned, but poorly informed individuals. There are always officers within a police department who are motivated to give the same type of fair and professional service that the public deserves. They are kept silent about any type of misconduct by the power system. Police chiefs and city managers don’t want you to hear about a lack of competent and ethical leadership. They are about protecting themselves and the reputation of the City. There are massive problems within the police department that anyone with real integrity would address. The training is totally inadequate and has gotten worse in the last ten years. They are shooting suspects that would have been arrested in a fight in the past. The SWAT team, and other officers responding to potentially armed suspects, are approaching like they learned nothing in training. So, who has been, and still is, responsible for training the officers? Duh. Why has the City never held the chief responsible for the poor conduct and training exhibited? Before the city buildings were damaged after George Floyd, I sent an email to all of the city council members telling them that they needed to find out what Chief Wilson’s plans were for defending the city’s businesses and the city buildings. I told them that she had no plan and knew nothing about crowd control. Besides the subsequent damaged to the city’s buildings, there was the huge civil liability that resulted from having APD assist Denver PD in poorly controlled crowd control in Denver. It isn’t unique to Denver or Aurora. Watch the massive use of tear gas and less lethal munitions by ICE. Heavily armed guys with no real plan or idea about crowd control. At any rate, the city faced huge fines for the incompetency of one chief.
The point is that there is real need for a public examination of the police department and how it is run. Unfortunately, it does not behoove the city to really look at itself.
The police department has no long term plan. It is simply at the whim of each new chief. Generally, the new chief cannot give you any real plan. That means that the chief spent a great deal of time grooming his/her career. After years at the job, a professional should have developed an idea of what should be done better and how to do it.
Anyone who cares about improving things looks for ideas. They don’t wait for someone to come beg them to fix it. They seek out ideas and they are open to real debate. There are so many places where APD is failing. The promotional system is broken. We are getting more bad supervisors than good supervisors. A simple survey of the officers would show that. During my time with APD, we saw so many really bad supervisors rise to the top. I remember an officer telling me that he wasn’t worried about what he did on the street after seeing how one of our supervisors treated people. That supervisor rose to captain even after he was documented for falsifying records in minority officers files. At any rate, when the officers see people rise to the top when everyone in the department knows that they are not fit to wear the uniform, it has very detrimental effects.
I won’t go on. The problem with civilian oversight is that they need to understand the variables involved in the job. I believe that transparency is important. I believe that we should be open about everything. The city and the police department don’t believe that. I wrote previously that the consent decree was useless and worse, harmful. Rewriting a bunch of policies and pursuing impossible goals made little sense. A waste of money. Did classes on implied bias stop questionable shootings? No. Will copying poorly done state statutes stop poor use of force? No.
If there is a lack of integrity and competence within the department, any nice written policies mean nothing.
I will give you a concrete example. The famous pistol whipping case where two officers were quickly criminally charged exemplifies the problem. There were business videos that would have cleared the officers. Those videos were not even picked up until after the officers were charged. The videos were shown to no one and one not even mentioned in the police report. I made an Internal Affairs Complaint due to the untrue statements in the Use of Force Review and the incredible incompetence and lack of integrity that hid the most important evidence in the case. The violations were glaringly obvious. At my expense, I made a copy of the videos and my complaint and gave them to Council along with a public statement. I contacted the Consent Decree Monitor. He said that the case happened before he came on. I told him that was true but the Internal Affairs case happened on his watch. He asked for the IAU case number and said that he would check it. All I ever got from him was a secondhand statement that they had see the video. I got from an officer within the department that the chief said that they were not going to look at it. Since his deputy, Chief Juul, was directly involved in the misconduct, I understood what was happening. But, so much for policies and statements about accountability and transparency. All of those entities that are supposed to oversee the police department looked the other way. By that, I mean the Chief, the City Manager, the City Council, Internal Affairs, and the Consent Decree Monitor. I also gave a copy of everything to a police union official. I told him to show the video to the officers. He said that he only had a couple years left on his career and couldn’t risk it. That gives you an idea of the environment within the department. An officer approached me in a restaurant and told me that I had been his lieutenant and that I was the only one who spoke up when things were wrong. He said that no one would speak up now. Another officer told me that if you speak up at all, you get reassigned. The message is clear. If you have all yes men, like Trump, what credibility is there to any supposed integrity in the system?
Oversight is needed. But, it has to be open and informed and seek real answers. The officers don’t need uninformed emotional judgments of their actions. They should be trained to a high professional level. But, due to the variables encountered on the street, they must be judged from a lower legal standard. The Elijah McClain case, tragic as it was, was not criminal on the part of the officers. When government officials pursue warped justice because it is politically correct, it damages the ability of law enforcement. Our politicians have destroyed any credibility in the justice system by using the system to pursue their enemies.