AURORA, Colo. — In a year in which Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson’s department is under intense scrutiny and she’s trying to restore its tarnished image, she’s doing a significant amount of her work away from the office, a 9Wants to Know investigation found.
Card-swipe data obtained by 9NEWS showed that over roughly seven months – from the third week of January through mid-August – she entered a city building, on average, two or three days a week.
Asked about the data, Wilson said she was not surprised, and that the job requires that she spend significant time elsewhere.
“I'm not here 100% of the time because I am out in community events and doing other things,” she said.
> 9Wants to Know found pictures of Wilson attending community events as a representative of Aurora Police on days where badge data shows she did not swipe into the office.
Social media posts show Chief Vanessa Wilson attending community events
Part of that is by design: She said she and top commanders have rotated working from home in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Part of it, she said, is the reality of the job of being a big-city police chief.
That has included dealing with the fallout from controversies involving the department, such as the death of Elijah McClain, and steps she’s taken to hold officers accountable for misconduct. For example, she’s been involved in meetings revolving around lawsuits, like the one filed by McClain’s family, and has had to attend hearings for some of the 23 officers who have lost their jobs for misconduct.
“My job is different than a patrol officer, or even one of my division chiefs,” Wilson said.
Even so, cops have complained repeatedly that she’s not present enough at a time when the department is being buffeted by criticism on all sides.
Mark Sears, the president of one of the two unions that represent Aurora police officers, declined to be interviewed for this story, but told 9Wants to Know in a statement, “We do believe we need to see the chief more.”
After hearing the complaints about Wilson’s time in the office, 9Wants to Know requested card-swipe data for her. Ultimately, the city was able to provide data from Jan. 23 through Aug. 18, a period of 145 work days.
She badged into police headquarters, or another city building, on 74 of those days – 51%.
For comparison, 9Wants to Know also obtained card-swipe data for Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen. During that same period, he was in the office 91% of the work days.
“The officers that work with you want to have the opportunity to hear directly from you, versus through the chain of command,” said Frank Straub, a director at the National Police Foundation and former police chief in Spokane, Wash. “They want to see that you’re engaged in their activities, that you're appreciative of those activities."
“In challenging times, they certainly probably want you around more – to interact with them and to give them guidance and to show them that you care, and that you're engaged with the current situation," Straub said.
Wilson acknowledged that she’s heard the criticism.
“If it's a criticism that they want to see their chief more, then that's what I've got to listen to and I've got to try and do my best,” Wilson said.
Department under scrutiny
Wilson took over as the city’s interim police chief on Jan. 1, 2020, following the retirement of former Chief Nick Metz. Eight months later, she was formally named to the position and “interim” was removed from her title.
She inherited a department that’s repeatedly been in the news.
Asked the most difficult part of her 22 months as the city’s top cop, she said, “Probably the amount of scrutiny that we're under and the amount of incidents that we've had to deal with."
“You know, I was told December 27 by City Manager [Jim] Twombly that he wanted me to take the organization over starting January 1 of 2020," she said. "And literally, as I was sitting in his office, there was a shooting. A young man lost his life over at the Town Center of Aurora.”
That was just the beginning.
“I think every day since I've taken over, there's been something that's been going on as far as whether it's an incident we need to deal with community outrage over,” she said. “The way we handle calls, whether it's internal misconduct that I had to open internal affairs investigations into, being in depositions, being in civil service hearings for people that I have terminated.”
There has been a parade of embarrassing incidents that either came to light after Wilson became chief or happened on her watch.
An officer passed out drunk at the wheel of his car, armed and in uniform. An officer arriving for work drunk. An officer pistol-whipping an unarmed man.
But the incident that most tarnished the department was the August 2019 death of Elijah McClain, after he was confronted by three Aurora officers following up on a report of a “suspicious” person. Those officers put McClain in a chokehold, took him to the ground, and handcuffed him before paramedics administered ketamine.
McClain died three days later.
Although McClain's death happened before Wilson was named chief, the release of body camera footage of the confrontation in 2020 sparked sustained outrage.
“We've lost a vibrant young man in this community and the community's outraged over it,” she said. “And we have to look at, as a police agency, what we can do differently in the way we respond to, respond to calls, to ensure that through our directives or through our training. And hopefully we never have this situation again."
“I pray and I'm knocking on wood, right, that that occurs," she said.
The repercussions of that incident are still being felt.
Three officers snapped a selfie, re-enacting a chokehold. Wilson fired two of them and the third resigned from the department. The city is on the verge of settling a civil lawsuit with McClain’s family. A statewide grand jury indicted the three officers and two paramedics involved in McClain’s death on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide as well as other counts.
In September, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced that his office, after an investigation, had determined the Aurora Police Department engaged in a long-running “pattern and practice” of racially biased policing. He said the department had 60 days to agree to a consent decree, which would impose specific reforms and oversight on it.
Those negotiations are ongoing, and Wilson declined to discuss them, noting that she’d agreed with Weiser to keep them confidential until they are concluded.
But she said she has no doubt an agreement will be reached.
“I think that everybody wants what's best for the city and for this police department,” she said.
Tensions with unions
Then there have been her dealings with the two police unions representing Aurora officers: the Aurora Police Association (APA) and Aurora FOP Lodge 49. The FOP represents officers in collective bargaining.
She made it clear her main issues were with the APA, but she opened up about her relationship with the organization.
“To be frank and be completely transparent and honest, the APA and I have been at odds since I took over from day one,” she said.
She pointed to a controversial selfie snapped by three officers that mocked McClain’s death.
“As I was doing my press conference, they were saying I was unfit to lead and calling for my removal then,” she said. “So, it's been – it’s been volatile, and I would say that we don't have a very positive relationship at all.”
After the grand jury indictments, the APA released a statement that said, in part, “Our officers did nothing wrong.”
Terminating officers also increased tensions with the unions.
“When I took this job over, I had no idea that I was going to have to terminate and remove people from this organization at the rate that I had to do so,” Wilson said. “But I stand behind it. It wasn't an easy decision, but I stand behind each and every one of those terminations."
“And with each and every one of those terminations, the criticism of 'Why?' or 'They didn't do anything wrong,' well, they did do things wrong," she said. "And that's why I removed them.”
Last month, the unions held a no-confidence vote. According to the unions, about 60% of Aurora’s 731 officers voted no confidence in Wilson’s leadership.
Asked if it surprised her, Wilson responded, “You know it did, honestly, and it hurt. I'm a human being, like I said, and being that I came from this agency it -- it floored me a little bit. But I need to listen to it, and I did listen to it.”
> RAW: Full interview with Aurora Chief of Police Vanessa Wilson
EDITOR’S NOTE: After the completion of this interview, 9Wants to Know determined that a portion of Wilson's card-swipe data provided by Aurora officials is incomplete. Two questions in the interview were based on that incomplete data – one about the percentage of time in the office and one about her time in the office in January and February. The 9NEWS story reflects the corrected data.
She said she’s also listening to complaints about her time in the office and recently eliminated one day a week she was working at home.
“I have many constituents,” she said. “I have the officers, I have the community, I have city management and council. And how I balance that a lot of times of, you know – listening to what the community wants and being there for them and being out there for them and trying to push reform and push a culture change really, as well as making the officers feel as though that I still have, you know, I still have them in my mind when I'm doing these things.”
Chuck Wexler, head of the Police Executive Research Forum, said it’s understandable that officers want to see their chief – and that being the top cop includes answering to more than just the troops.
“Being a police chief has always been a balancing act between a lot of different priorities,” Wexler said. “You have community interest, you have political interests, you have the interests of the police officers.”
Pushing reforms and trying to rebuild the department’s relationship with the community – as Wilson is charged with doing – is difficult work and often leads to criticism from within, Wexler said.
“So being a police chief isn't about being popular," Wilson said. "It's about being right, and being able to support what you're doing with evidence.”
For her part, Wilson said she can take the criticism and won’t be deterred from trying to rebuild the department’s image and institute meaningful reform.
“I'm doing the job I think I need to do to have the community believe in the amazing men and women that are out there right now, answering calls for service,” she said. “I can take the criticism, but I'm not going to change the charge."
“We're going to continue to push forward," she said.
Contact 9Wants to Know investigator Kevin Vaughan with tips about this or any story: kevin.vaughan@9news.com or 303-871-1862.
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