By Emily Ochoa McDonald
Over the last few weeks at the Aurora City Hall, a series of public sessions called the C.H.A.N.G.E. (Community Helping Auroras Necessary Growth and Empowerment), a reform initiative, were held to discuss the use of force and training policies the Aurora Police Department use. The public was invited to examine policies the Aurora Police Department uses to determine the reasonableness of their actions. Members of the public were given an opportunity to recommend revisions, offer their perspectives on policing, and present ideas for additional changes which will go to the City Council for review. Aurora police officers and Chief of Police Kristen Ziman were available at the sessions to answer questions.
The C.H.A.N.G.E. sessions were organized with good intentions after a plea from former U.S. president Barack Obama on Twitter following the death of George Floyd in late May. However, the sessions were both poorly publicized and inaccessible to many because no interpreters were available for the non-English speaking individuals and there were no sessions in any language other than English. Many households do not have access to the internet and thus were unable to participate in the online forum. Many were not willing to go to City Hall for a somewhat socially-distanced gathering.
At the sessions, Chief Ziman, along with other high-ranking officers, were asked to help the public understand how they determined what is a reasonable use of force because this policy justifies many police actions. However, according to Aurora Police Department, reasonable is whatever the officer thinks is necessary to maintain personal safety and gain compliance of the alleged offender.
Although officers are trained to de-escalate situations first, residents were constantly reminded that officers must make snap decisions and, in many cases, there is not time to try and de-escalate further. This answer did not sit well with many individuals in the room. When asked about the required training for responding to calls, the officers pointed out the Aurora Police Department trains its officers more than neighboring police departments and they would challenge other departments to meet Aurora’s rigid standards.
The full official training manuals and policies in use by the Aurora Police Department were not provided in the sessions, but snippets were in view. The full policies/manual are inaccessible to the public without a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request. Many residents were left unsatisfied by the defensive responses of the police chief and other officers who repeated, “the law allows me to” for every seemingly-hard question.
Some of the recommendations were practical: First, for the Aurora Police Department to better serve the community, it must have body cameras and use them. The APD is working with vendors to supply the cameras to every officer.
Second, APD must use its $80-Million budget responsibly by improving upon its current training in de-escalation tactics, including a better system for triage in 9-1-1 calls. More officers need to be trained and ready to deal with agitated persons of all backgrounds, including those with mental illness and those with cultures different from the officers. In areas of the City stigmatized by past violence, the paramount goal should be everyone to live free of violence.
One issue that continued to reverberate throughout the discussions was what level of compliance is necessary from community members when dealing with a police officer. Many wanted to know what level of compliance is needed, or the lack thereof, that would be necessary to avoid unreasonable use of force. It was agreed upon that the public needs to be educated about its rights and how to act with the police and the police must learn to use words to prevent the need to use weapons. If officers are left to judge reasonable use of force on their own, in the heat of the moment, they may be going beyond what “the law allows me to” and the protections which their uniform affords.
These C.H.A.N.G.E. sessions should begin the hard work of specifying what reasonable use of force is. In the wake of George Floyd’s death, both the public and police need to know. It is vital to urban security.