AURORA, Colo. — Aurora City Council voted Monday night to confirm Todd Chamberlain as the city's next police chief.
The vote came amid community concerns about a lack of transparency in the selection process. Two councilmembers voted against confirming Chamberlain as the new chief.
After the vote, people in the council chambers yelled phrases including "vote them out" and "shame on you." Some residents told council members they are upset the community was left out of the selection process. As community members chanted in the auditorium, council members stood up and finished the meeting virtually in another room.
Aurora City Manager Jason Batchelor announced Chamberlain's selection on Wednesday. Chamberlain is a former Los Angeles Police Department officer and commander who was with the department from 1984 to 2018. He later served as police chief for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and more recently as a public safety consultant and university lecturer at California State University Los Angeles.
Chamberlain was chosen as chief without any input from the public. In 2022, the department faced criticism for announcing three white men as finalists to lead the department in Colorado’s most diverse city. This time around, there were no community meetings, forums or conversations with the community leaders who have been asking for transparency for years.
"The charter lays out that I appoint and the council confirm," Batchelor said last week. "So, this is the process we're using."
Thursday, Chamberlain also defended the process that ended with his appointment.
"When you hear all the issues related to the selection process, I think the question has to be, has the selection process worked in the past?" Chamberlain said. "And I’m going to be very candid with you, I don’t think it has. You’ve had five chiefs in five years, and for whatever reason why, how that selection went, I don’t know, but I know that I am here to commit."
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Chamberlain will be Aurora's sixth police chief since 2019 and the first chief since 2022 without the word "interim" in his title.
Over the past few years, the department has faced allegations of racism and biased policing, been under the watch of a consent decree and has said it is working to win back the trust of the community it serves.
Chamberlain is set to be sworn in Sept. 9.
Marc Sallinger and Aaron Adelson contributed to this report.