AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — The first consent decree report for the Aurora Police Department was released.
This new report is the first of 12 that are all supposed to reform the police department after a Colorado Attorney General investigation found the department was biased against people of color on a regular basis and had too many excessive force incidents.
The report is very detailed, totaling nearly 400 pages. In a basic summary, it says the city and police are very cooperative and have made substantial progress on some of the changes that have been mandated.
The independent monitor’s report says the city made “significant efforts” to improve police-community relations, pointing out various efforts like the establishment of a community task force, a youth advisory team and special community events that target youth.
But the report also criticized the police department. It also said that the city’s force review board needs to be more critical.
Part of the report mentions a rough arrest last year, saying the officer’s response contributed to a traffic stop escalating into a violent encounter.
In the case of this arrest, the independent monitor said “the FRB failed to examine the officer’s history, which would have indicated a significant incident only a month earlier and an involvement in an on-duty traffic collision. The board also did not appear to consider the use of force utilized when a responding officer tackled the driver while the initial officer still had his weapon trained on the driver and other officers, positionally opposite from the initial officer, had their weapons drawn.”
The report also says new officers are not getting as much supervision as they did in the past and are often assigned to overnight shifts with a lot of crime and newer supervisors.