Aurora is known for its diverse populations and welcoming immigrant and refugee communities. So it’s especially astonishing that the Aurora police union president — also a police officer — recently had this to say about the community he serves in an email sent to 240 members of his union: “To match the ‘diversity’ of ‘the community’ we could make sure to hire 10% illegal aliens, 50% weed smokers, 10% crackheads, and a few child molesters and murderers to round it out. You know, so we can make the department look like the ‘community.’” Officer Doug Wilkinson was suspended the next day.
The email exemplifies the challenge faced in Aurora as the city attempts to reform the police department, and why it was necessary for Attorney General Phil Weiser to get involved.
Aurora and Weiser’s office reached an agreement on concrete steps that Aurora Police will take to improve how they interact with the public and comply with state laws. This includes oversight by an outside independent monitor to track progress and ensure compliance.
As a former Denver city attorney, I have closely watched the Department of Justice investigate and reform law enforcement agencies across the country for everything from use of force policies to civil rights violations. However, their resources are limited and they have been unable to be as aggressive or robust as needed in a country that has approximately 18,000 local, state and federal police departments.
For decades, these powers to investigate and force change rested in the hands of the federal government and not state officials. This changed in Colorado in 2020, following the passage of Colorado’s police reform bill. Our attorney general now is vested with the legal authority to conduct these investigations as well.
And, in a historic first for Colorado and the apparent first completed investigation in the country, the City of Aurora and Attorney General Phil Weiser recently reached an agreement — that is expected to last five years — which will meaningfully improve how Aurora’s police interact with the public.
It’s little wonder why Weiser took advantage of this law and set his sights on the Aurora Police Department. The city recently reached a court settlement for $15 million with the family of 23-year old Elijah McClain, an unarmed Black man who died after he was put in a chokehold by the Aurora police and injected with ketamine by paramedics. Aurora officers were also fired or resigned for later mocking McClain’s death.
But this wasn’t an isolated incident. Another Aurora officer drew his gun on an unarmed Black man, repeatedly choking and hitting him while the man screamed for help, all while another officer looked on and did nothing. In another incident, a Black woman and her daughters and nieces — including a 6-year-old girl — were ordered from their car by officers with their guns drawn. The children were forced to lie on hot pavement all because the officers somehow mistook their car for a motorcycle that had the same plates and was tied to a crime.
The investigation into Aurora’s police practices by Weiser’s office confirmed that these events were not isolated incidents, but rather part of a tragic and systemic failure to follow the law and properly train their officers.
Among the other findings, Aurora officers used force against persons of color 2.5 times more than against white individuals. Nearly half of the individuals whom Aurora police used force against were Black, despite Black individuals made up only 15 percent of Aurora’s population. Aurora failed to follow laws requiring documentation of contacts with the public; Aurora officers arrested Black individuals more than twice as often as their white neighbors; and, Aurora paramedics injected ketamine — the substance administered into McClain during his fatal encounter with Aurora officers — at doses well above the maximum dosage calculated by a person’s weight.
Fortunately, Aurora has the leadership and desire needed to fix these systemic problems. Chief Vanessa Wilson is steadfast in improving her department’s culture and training, and she has demonstrated she won’t hesitate to fire officers who don’t live up to the badge they wear. Aurora’s elected leaders also are taking the attorney general’s findings seriously. Last month, Aurora City Council approved the agreement by an 8-1 vote.
Attorney General Weiser deserves credit for his work in protecting the public and supporting Colorado’s police and sheriffs — pushing for funds for officer retention, partnering with local law enforcement to arrest traffickers smuggling fentanyl into our state, and even suing the federal government when it illegally withheld millions of needed dollars from Colorado law enforcement agencies (Weiser won that lawsuit and got those funds to Colorado’s officers).
And, his decision to investigate and seek a roadmap for real change in collaboration with Aurora leaders is a shining example of real, commonsense change for Aurora residents and our state. Hopefully, Aurora’s commitment to change will also incentivize other local police departments to thoroughly review their own practices and policies too.
And, most importantly, this work will go far to prevent another senseless tragedy in Aurora.
Doug Friednash is a Denver native, a partner with the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck, and the former chief of staff for Gov. John Hickenlooper.
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