AURORA, Colo. — The Aurora City Council has voted to accept the consent decree between the Aurora Police Department, Aurora Fire Rescue and the Colorado Attorney General’s Office to fix multiple issues identified within the two departments.
Monday night, council voted 8-1, with Mayor Mike Coffman abstaining, to accept the consent decree announced last week to address a multitude of issues involving policies, training, record keeping and hiring practices within the city police and fire departments that were identified in a September report following a 14-month investigation.
The decree would give the city up to two years to change operations and training for the Aurora Police Department and Aurora Fire Rescue in addressing bias in policing, use of force and documentation of stops. It also aims to change the city’s hiring practices for the police and fire departments to make them more inclusive and reflective of the city’s diversity.
Once Aurora completes the training milestones, the consent decree monitor, who will be hired to oversee the decree, will confirm the city is in compliance for up to three years by monitoring the departments and measuring the success of the changes, the decree states.
The draft decree will be filed in Arapahoe County District Court, and a district court judge will be requested to sign the stipulated consent decree as an order of the court.