PERRY: Aurora Chief Wilson’s rank firing throws the city back to ‘just the way things are’

1. it was announced that there would be a press conference yesterday . . however, only local fox New showed a small bit of it. even aurora’s very own channel 8 didnt televise it. guess they didnt think any of aurora’s citizens would want to watch any of it. i will be surprised to se how many apply for the position after reading the news articles about another sad happening in the cit ive called home got 60 years.

2. It was abundantly clear that this diversity hire wasn’t working out. The report of more than 2500 cases being backlogged directly speaks to the lack of leadership offered by this diversity hire.

   1. enough with the diversity hire…you mention it in every comment numerous times. The population of Aurora is 51% female. Cut it out. Our institutions should reflect our true population and it’s about time we had a female Chief, even if the males sabotaged it.

      1. Every officer knew Vanessa and knew it was a diversity hire, why else would she get promoted? Sorry if you knew her you wouldn’t be defending her. Not the public “caring” shell seen, but the real person she was for years. Its not just being female, she has 3 phony shells of males serving in the executive staff also….

   2. And you clearly haven’t been keeping up with the news and the backlogged cases WHICH CHIEF WILSON WAS AWARE OF AND BROUGHT UP TO JIM TWOMBLY.

      1. KSmith, it didn’t exactly work that way. The city had their own in house audit team do a audit. This is a yearly process required. That audit by city employees was not what the city expected as it was unfavorable. It was the trigger that led to the next audit. The PRI report, was to send the city confirmation of poor records management. You will see the records dept is a sub-section of APD and under Wilson direct supervision. She hires and fires in that dept. Wilson was told get your affairs in order over there. The message to do that will be made public, as this hot-potato gets passed around.

         1. I am not in the least impressed with PRI.

   3. 25 years of law enforcement experience should count for something, don’t you think so, Juan?

      1. What the hell are you talking about?

3. Studies show that When a woman is hired in a job traditionally only open to White men, she does not get the support or resources needed and is quickly fired. In this case Chief Wilson got a pandemic and a long and sordid history of APD brutality against POC including murder, mocking and encouraging the brutality, drunk police on duty and union approval of all of that, along with union pushback intentionally undermining her, and then with the new conservative Council she got sexism and just looking for a place to blame as they limit public comment and hire a totally partisan, biased auditor. Chief Wilson made progress in recruiting and training police better and implementing a program like STAR to divert mental health calls to better trained first responders, nothing her male predecessors did anything about. Partisan, discriminatory and corrupt is how this firing looks and is. All Aurorans will suffer because of it.

   1. Well, criminals certainly may suffer. Degenerates of all shapes, sizes, and colors may suffer. Leftist activists (many of whom comprise the two aforementioned groups) may suffer. All Aurorans will not.

      You see, my actions don’t place me in frequent contact with the Aurora Police. And when we do meet, I treat them with respect. Easy peasy.

      1. So you are enjoying your white priviledge.

         1. Mr. Felice, you can shove your rhetoric in a very dark orifice. It has nothing to do with race, and everything to do with behavior and actions. Be accountable for once.

            1. Whenever the ugly truth comes out, there’s someone (usually many someones) who steps forward to sagely advise us that it’s “not about race”.

               Pro tip: It’s about race. It’s always been about race. And now that people are video recording these abuses, the “it’s not about race” crowd is getting even more shrill as the stark truth is revealed.

               Stop lying to yourself.

            2. Playing the race card

         2. Whew, you really hate white people, don’t you, Joe?

   2. Vanessa has been incompetent at her positions for many years at APD, this was just one more she got because of diversity, interestingly it took about the same time to realize it at this level too…

4. Your articles on Chief Wilson’s firing have been great, but I am puzzled by uour comment, “like in so many other places, that’s just the way things are.” Seriously? Where are these other places? I think Aurora sets a pretty low standard on leadership.

   Chief Wilson seems kind and caring and a great role model for someone with a difficult and challenging job. I hope she finds a community that deserves her.

5. This is the story all the media should be telling.

6. The city hired a black chief to solve a perceived racial problem, and race relations never had deteriorated so bad as during his term. Then Aurora hires an outed lesbian so she would punish the white male culture, yet most of any large city department is white male and all she did was appoint little buddies to top chief jobs who were all white males. If the city actually looked into the mirror, the problem started when they created the appointed ranks of Commander, where they could side step fair testing and appoint sycophants and cronies in top positions. It led to abuses, bad appointments, a ‘good old boy’ system worse than ever. The past civil service promotional procedures insured a mix of personalities in the captain rank. Since the change Chiefs Metz and Wilson used this system to deny test list promotions by changing Lieutenant and Captain positions into Commander, then putting cronies in there. Assuring a group think mentality with all owing their positions to one person. This is the group running the department now. Vanessa was an empty suit and incompetent, but the problem is now systemic. I predict it will not change anything for her to leave.

   1. Unfortunately, you are right. The top management of APD has been a sick good ole boy system for as long as I can remember. They espoused no ethical values within the department and lead by favoritism and fear. They were like a mini Putin. You could be incompetent, lazy, racist, and dishonest but you were safe as long as they liked you. Vanessa was just a smooth talking part of that system who knew how to fake caring. She never stood up for anything that was wrong. It doesn’t take a genius to know that you have to fire some people in today’s environment.The commander position was an interesting perversion. It gave them more twisted control while making it necessary to raise the chief’s pay to squeeze in the extra rank. Most departments flattened their rank structure by eliminating the captain or lieutenant and creating the commander rank. Aurora used the commander justification to instead squeeze in another layer of yes men. Improvement is virtually impossible in today’s environment. The city will pick another smooth talking politician based upon a nationwide search using another good ole boy former police chief group to screen them. That politician chief will go along with the popular narrative and will not stand up for his officers or challenge the incredibly damaging police reform bill. Worse, the badly flawed but sacred police reform bill, coupled with the uniformed media and a hysterical section of the public make it impossible to do police work. Body cams are good. Transparency is good. Massive generalizations about systemic racism, not supported by facts, but pushed by people like the Attorney General, have put law enforcement in a hole where they are automatically charged and sued. The cities are going to be paying a great deal of money to everyone smart enough to yell racism and brutality. Meanwhile, those who know nothing about use of force are yelling for officers to be prosecuted or sued for putting their arm around someone’s neck or kneeling on them during a fight. So, officers are forced to do nothing and that simply adds to the public feeling that the police “do nothing”. The departure from the guidelines on use of force set by the Supreme Court has left law enforcement adrift. Fortunately for our politicians, the public only knows the headlines and no real details. The flashy generalizations offered by the Sentinel sell well. Move along, no facts to see here, folks.

      1. You had created a shield years ago that blocked a person against a wall safely and eliminated a lot of unnecessary use of force. The department gave you no support in that design, it was far thinking, to far for sycophant politics. just one example!

         1. Yes, the department’s attitude toward the public safety was aptly demonstrated there. The citizens have no idea of the self serving bureaucracy we had to fight and that still exists at all levels.

7. “The way it is” will remain the way it is. Nothing will change.

   1. You don’t know the way it is. You only know the headlines that you are fed. If you had real knowledge about police work, leadership, or Vanessa’s real history, I would be interested in what you have to say. But, like most people, you jump to the firing must be sexist or something like “Vanessa seems nice”. If I gave my strong opinion about how nice Will Smith is and how the criticism is racist, would it have any value, since I know absolutely nothing about Will Smith and what kind of person he is?

8. She represented incompetent leadership

9. Huh. Interesting. Somebody explain something to me. So we got a Police Chief being blamed for the massive issues the Dept. had long before her. But they work to lay blame for all the wrong on the Chief’s head, to ignore their own part in this problem.

   Examples? Here’s one. Councilwoman Jurinsky, who thinks she has the right to be so vocal about the daily operations of the police department. Who works hard to ensure she will have the right to apply for Covid relief grants for her bar in the city. The same bar that, as I hear tale, offers freebies and discounts specifically to the police. Does she not realize that sitting on the Council while offering such things to her “subordinates” is considered a form of kickback (bribery) when it is not offered to others beyond them? Seems the Councilwoman has been doing more than running her mouth. She’s been actively breaking way more than the City Charter. But right, the Police Chief she wanted to take the blame so badly is the source of the problem. Riiight. Keep telling yourself that.

   Now, having fired the Chief, no one is left to lay blame upon but the Council themselves. Their mismanagement, their bad lawyer, and intentional subversion and abuse of their positions on the Council. You fought so hard to blame Chief Wilson for all your bad policies. Now she’s gone, and it is your turn. Time to investigate the Council Members for political corruption, and abuse of the City Lawyer to protect them from scrutiny. You wanted her fired? Fine, I want about half the Council fired right along with her. Starting with the weakest, most feckless career politican on the Council. Bitch Ass Mayor Mike Coffman, the bad example the others try to follow.

   I’d rather not wait until these people ruin the City for another year and beyond. Down with the Corrupt Council now. Aurora deserves a better class of leadership. Not mouthy little spoiled brats that enact ordinance to ruin the lives of others as they hide behind the money the taxpayers spend on police and keeping that Municipal Building operational. Or, keep things, “as they have been”, and the citizens will continue to pay the price for it.

   1. “Aurora deserves a better class of leadership.”

      So you’re saying the commies, er, “Democratic Socialists” on the council need to go?

      1. Basically anyone you like is automatically disqualified.

         You’re the George Costanza of political opinions, we should all do the exact opposite of every one of your asinine, self-pleasuring comments.

10. This is the criminal viewpoint…and yes we will go back to upholding the law

11. I just completed a 3 year term as a Commissioner on the City of Aurora Civil Service Commission, the last two years as Chairperson. Here is the core questions that needs to be asked amid the political turmoil and accusations that are being hurled back and forth: If you live in Colorado, or want to move to Colorado, and are a quality person interested in a law enforcement career with a large municipality why would Aurora be at the top of your list? I understand one of the core strategies is a fully staffed APD. Great goal, how are the decision makers going to make it happen? The many high quality rank and file officers in the patrol cars working in the trenches are exhausted, stressed out and largely unappreciated. Compare the average years of experience 5 years ago with what it is today. Take a look at the numbers….are the numbers being graduated from the APD Police Academy matching up with the chronic attrition statistics. Have the retention bonus payouts really resulted in higher retention? I was proud to serve on the Civil Service Commision and the support staff was outstanding, but their hands are tied. The pool of qualified candidates for individuals interested in a law enforcement career is diminishing, Aurora is not in a good position to compete with other municipalities in terms of morale or compensation comparisons, and thus far I see no evidence of an aggressive recruitment program that is producing demonstrable results.

    1. It is refreshing to hear from someone with some knowledge about the real situation instead of the steady flow of comments from people who just generalize. Let me comment on some things the public often gets completely wrong. First, let me say that as an instructor in a community college basic law enforcement program, we are seeing the class sizes drop by half. A good percentage of our students are minorities. It appears that the programs will be cancelled in the near future. Let me say also that we cannot teach anything that we can be certain won’t be labeled as excessive by the media mob and uninformed prosecutors. The police reform bill basically destroyed the legal foundations for use of force established by the Supreme Court. No one can tell you what the use of force guidelines in the police reform bill mean.

       That said, let me address some misconceptions about the Civil Service Commission. I did not always agree with the decisions made vey the Civil Service Commission. Most of the disagreement was the result of my understanding of how corrupt out police department administration was. The chiefs have tried to take power away from Civil service in every way possible. Chiefs framed it as the need to have more power to address misconduct within the department. They framed it as though their hands were tied to deal with problems because the Civil Service was too lenient. It sells well with the public, even though it is an outright lie. The chiefs constantly tried to get more power and they became more corrupted by that power every year. They built staffs that used favoritism and fear to keep officers quiet about administrative misconduct and dishonesty. Discipline was based almost entirely upon who spoke up within the organization. Through the years, good officers tried to make improvements in training, equipment, and procedures. They tried to speak up when things were wrong, legally or ethically. The only protection for those within the department was the Civil Service. We knew that we could at least question the unethical things that were done. As long as we kept it professional, we knew that we were protected from administrative misconduct and punishment by Civil Service. Without Civil Service, chiefs are free to create little kingdoms that hide their incompetence and unethical behavior. So, if you want the honest, caring, and professional people to try to keep things above board and professional, you need to protect those people from the natural tendency to build a kingdom where everyone keeps their mouth shut about the wrong things that wrong. If you destroy Civil Service, you will have little Putins surrounding themselves with yes men who will keep quiet when things are wrong. Let me give you an example of the unethical behavior that we were used to within the department. As a lieutenant, I reported another lieutenant who was trying to falsify information to cover up his part in discrimination against some of our minority officers. The chief liked the lieutenant, so there were no repercussions for his misconduct. No disciplinary action and no negative information in his file. His punishment was to promise not to test for captain for a year. He agreed and then tested a year later and made captain. He became my captain. With that type of leadership, it is critical to have some check on the chief’s authority.

       Let me talk about another aspect that the public misconstrues. In our experience, the union was most often forced to defend bad officers not because they were innocent, but because of the twisted way the department went after them. The department often violated every policy and procedure in the way they went after an officer. In some cases, they even had their internal affairs investigator commit perjury. They would stack everything they could think of on the charges instead of using the solid case they had for the specific violation. In many cases, the charges were motivated simply by the desire to punish the officer for questioning the actions of the chief. It was a vindictive system based upon favoritism and a desire for complete control. It is imperative that Civil Service not be destroyed by the chief’s office.

       The chief would always say that he did not have enough power to promote the people he needed to run the department. Its was a lie. Let me explain how the system really works. First, the chief’s office controls the officer’s chance for promotion. The higher in rank, the more subjective the promotional exams become. The chief’s office has input into the testing and what kind of candidates they are seeking. Secondly, the chief’s office controls every assignment in an officer’s career. If they like you, they assign you to a variety of plum assignments that will look good on your resume and will make you appear well balanced. If they did not like you, you were not given any good assignments, even if you were the most qualified. So, when you went before a promotion board, you looked poorly qualified and not well rounded. If you had questioned or disagreed with them on anything, you knew that you would never work in any assignments that you wanted. When I was a lieutenant, I was made a watch commander with the worst possible hours. I knew that I would never work in the assignments that I wanted or for which I was most qualified. They would make me do jobs that should have been done by the SWAT Commander or the Emergency Response Commander but they would not put me in those assignments after I had disagreed on anything. I have friends who are now lieutenants. They tell me that it hasn’t changed. They are just hanging on in their assignments until they can get out of the department.

       Another cute trick that the chief’s office would use, was to put you on administrative leave and have you psychologically evaluated. They knew that you had no recourse. It was done to me and a number of others who had the nerve to question the unethical or incompetent behavior of the top staff. Naturally, the psychologist quickly realized that there wasn’t anything wrong with the officers and would suggest coping skills to deal with the police administration. In some cases, the psychologists had already heard the litany of administrative misconduct and were well aware of the flaws that existed in the top staff.

       Right now, no one is addressing the reasons for the exodus of officers. The public want to believe that they are leaving because they are racist or brutal and they are resistant to change. Sorry, but we never had that many bad apples. The bad apples we did have were not dealt with by our favoritism ridden administrative police staffs. Change is more prevalent in police work than almost any profession. Officers have to constantly learn about changes in the laws and procedures. The police reform bill is a travesty that the chiefs won’t address. The legislature keeps bragging about the good that they did. However, they won’t debate or discuss it publicly. When they took away all of the protections, created vague guidelines, and then demonized the police as racist bullies, they destroyed police work. The people who are making decisions on use of force are no longer qualified to do so. The media and the mob make the judgment and the chiefs will not stand up. the Supreme Court created clear guidelines on use of force long ago. The use was to be judged from the viewpoint of a reasonable officer at the scene. The police knew that the actions in the George Floyd case were wrong. They did not need an uninformed knee jerk reaction from the legislature.

       I have gone far afield. Just let me say that Civil Service protects more than just the officers. In the long run, Civil Service helps to protect all of us from misconduct at the highest levels. Without protection, there is no chance that officers will stand up when things are wrong.

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