Under community pressure, Aurora City Council creates Public Safety Accountability Office

Aurora, CO – On Monday, June 8, the Aurora City Council voted on Resolution 2-68 to create the new “Public Safety Accountability Office.” The office will investigate incidents involving public departments, including the police. It is supposed to have unrestricted access to department records, release its findings to the public, and assign a family contact when someone is seriously injured or killed.

This office is a response to years of work by Aurora residents to see changes in the police department. After the 2019 police killing of Elijah McClain, people took to the streets demanding justice. The protests and public outrage forced the state to put the Aurora Police Department under a court-ordered consent decree. The state found patterns of racism and excessive use of force in APD’s policing. This required APD to review their policies and procedures and be transparent with information.

However, even under this court order, APD has continued to shoot and kill Black people. Jor’Dell Richardson, Kilyn Lewis, Kory Dillard, Rashaud Johnson, Avi-Belle Mason and Rajon Belt-Stubblefield were all murdered by officers while the consent decree was active. It has done nothing to change the racist and violent policing in Aurora.

The people have continued to demand more through protests and city council meetings and those efforts won this reform. The community still demands more and has many criticisms of this new office.

This new office can only make recommendations on disciplinary actions or suggest policy changes. It lacks any power to enforce changes.

Cassandra Heil, a member of the Denver-Aurora Community Action Committee, spoke on this issue. She stated, “So what’s the point of this Public Safety Accountability office if it can’t hold cops accountable? It can document problems, write reports, and make recommendations, but it cannot stop police misconduct from happening again. If neither the community nor the office has the power to create change, then this bill cannot actually deliver accountability.”

Heil’s continued, “The PSA office will only engage with the community twice a year. That is not meaningful community engagement.”

MiDian Shofner, founder of the Epitome of Black Excellence stated, “The community engagement feels very thin.”

The bill passed unanimously, including far-right pro-cop councilmembers who have opposed changes to policing in the past. Critics have pointed to this unanimous vote as evidence the bill lacks any meaningful change.

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