AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — The Aurora Police Department says it hit a “training milestone” after completing department-wide training in public safety in accordance with the consent decree.
The department entered a consent decree with the Colorado attorney general in February 2022. The agreement comes after the Attorney General’s Office did an investigation that found a pattern of civil rights issues and too many incidents of excessive force within the department.
As of March 1, all sworn Aurora police officers have received training on Integrating Communication Assessment and Tactics and Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement. The training includes useful ways to defuse situations and peer intervention, which teaches officers how to intervene if another officer isn’t properly handling a situation.
“We’ve really done a good job of better clarifying some of the expectations, not just in policy, but then developing training to really enforce that policy,” Division Chief Chris Juul said.
Transparency a focus for Aurora Police
In an effort to increase transparency, the department is also adding a “transparency portal” to its website in the coming months.
“You can do some searches based on types of calls, mental health, uses of force, officer complaints, so that it’s more clear to the community what it is that we’re doing and how we’re handling our business, which hasn’t always been something that’s been easy to find,” Juul said.
As part of the agreement, the department is also working with a consent decree monitor who will track the department’s progress over the next several years. That includes monitoring police calls, body camera and use of force tactics.
“I think they just need to give us time to prove ourselves. Yeah it sounds great, but we also need to demonstrate that we’re fulfilling those things. The way we’re going to do that is we have written a policy, we’re putting our officers through the training, and then we’re going to have three years of accountability with the monitor to show we’re actually following through on that,” Juul said.