Aurora makes hire to address police accountability
Aurora leaders will hire an independent monitor to oversee discipline and accountability within the city’s police department, the city manager announced one day after the release of a damning investigation into the death of Elijah Mcclain in police custody.
“I will be pursuing with mayor and council the establishment of an independent monitor to help us enhance the accountability and transparency of the police department and to gain the trust of the public,” Aurora City Manager Jim Twombly said during a news conference Tuesday.
The announcement follows the release Monday of a report detailing the independent investigation into Mcclain’s 2019 death after a violent arrest by Aurora police and an injection of the sedative ketamine by city paramedics. The review found the department’s internal investigation to be deeply flawed and that the detectives who ran the investigation stretched the truth to exonerate the of ficers.
Twombly said the report exposed “a failure of a system of accountability.”
City Councilmember Alison Coombs called the report disturbing and said she suppor ted the hiring of an independent monitor and other solutions to deal with a corrupted accountability system.
“The treatment of Elijah Mcclain was completely unacceptable,” Coombs said. “It was violent. It was tor ture.”
Discussions about civilian oversight of the Aurora Police Department have been ongoing since 2019, when a series of high-profile injuries and killings by police prompted outcry in the city. A task force of community members has been working for a year to clarify what they want the oversight to look like and are expected to present their recommendations to the Aurora City Council on March 15, said Councilmember Nicole Johnston, who is leading the task force. The recommendations will include creating an Office for Police Accountability, Transparency and Transformation that will better integrate the feedback of community members into police department workings, she said. The task force supports the hiring of an independent monitor, she said.
“A lot of good has been done, but we have a lot of work to do,” she said.
Aurora police Chief Vanessa Wilson said during the news conference that she supported the hiring of an independent monitor because “that is the only way we’re going to regain the trust of the community.”
If Aurora creates the position, it will be the third
Colorado city to do so. Denver established an Of fice of the Independent Monitor in 2005 and Boulder hired a monitor in July.
“I believe Chief Wilson has made great strides in holding officers accountable and putting into effect policies and training to improve the department,” Twombly said. “However, a system of accountability should not be dependent on who sits in the chief’s chair. It needs to be put into place so that it functions and represents the community’s desire for constitutional, unbiased and respectful policing that holds officers accountable. I believe an independent monitor can help us achieve that.”
But details around the new position and its role are not clear. City spokesman Ryan Luby said in response to questions from The Denver Post that it was too early in the process to say what the timeline for hiring an independent monitor will be, what the parameters of the role will be and to whom in the city the monitor would report.
Last year, the city hired an internal auditor to review police policy and procedures. The auditor, who star ted Jan.1, joins the team of auditors who routinely evaluate a swath of city policies and reports to Twombly.
Wilson also created a force investigations unit in November that will look into officers’ use of force. The unit will be comprised of Aurora police officers who are subject matter experts that will ask “specific and hard questions” and do an extensive investigation to present to the department’s force review board.
She also will reach out to the two district attorneys who decide whether Aurora police should be charged in use-of-force cases to see how they want to move for ward on investigating future killings by police.
Wilson wouldn’t say whether the two officers involved in Mcclain’s death who remain on the force would face discipline, citing the ongoing investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and Colorado Attorney General’s Office. She also wouldn’t say whether the detectives who led the flawed investigation into the incident would be disciplined. Wilson committed to addressing implicit bias in the department. The report fell short of declaring that Mcclain’s race played a part in how the officers and paramedics.
“However, research indicates that factors such as increased perception of threat, perception of extraordinary strength, perception of higher pain tolerance and misperception of age and size can be indicators of bias,” the repor t states. “We urge that the city assess its ef for ts to ensure bias-free policing, implicit or other wise.”