AURORA, Colo. — Aurora is still looking for a new police chief more than a month after its last three finalists didn't work out.
The city said it hasn't received any formal applications since Oct. 4, when they announced they were extending the search.
The first time around, 21 people applied for the job during the two months it was posted. Two of the applicants withdrew early in the process. The initial pool included seven applicants who were women or people of color – 33% of the applicant pool. Two of them were selected for semifinalist interviews.
The city publicly released the names of three finalists, who were all white men. Over several days they met the department, council members and the community. One of the men withdrew his application following the three-day final selection process.
City council member Dustin Zvonek thinks that process pushed qualified candidates away.
"I have heard this from Chief [Dan] Oates, frankly, and other chiefs across the country that have said a really experienced chief is not going to apply for a process where it is open that way unless they are going to be named the sole finalist," he said.
On Sunday, City of Aurora spokesperson Ryan Luby said city management and the recruiting firm are conducting targeted outreach and having conversations with potential candidates around the country to gauge their interest in the open position.
"The city is considering all possibilities to determine the best candidate to lead the department, focus on crime reduction and continue the important public safety changes already underway," Luby said.
Dan Oates was brought on as interim chief of police after the city manager fired Vanessa Wilson in April. Oates led the Aurora Police Department from 2005 to 2014, and he ran the department through the aftermath of the theater shooting in July 2012.
Zvonek said he's not worried about the length of time it's taking to hire a permanent police chief. Finding the right person for the job is more important to him than the speed of hiring someone.
"We are not actively out there accepting applications the way we were the first time, so it doesn't surprise me we haven't had any direct applications," he said.
According to Luby, the city has been increasingly challenged in recruiting qualified applicants despite exhaustive efforts. This time around, city management and the recruiting firm are doing targeted outreach and having conversations with possible candidates.
"I believe if we are going to get the most qualified person that we needed to move to a direct conversation process where we weren’t just taking applications and going through this whole public process," Zvonek said.
He believes it's possible the city could only name one or two finalists.
"If we have this public process where we name three finalists and tell them, 'You might get the job, you might not,' then we are going to limit our pool," Zvonek said. "We are going to limit the number of people that apply."
Some in the community thought they should have been more involved the first time. In one of the state's most diverse cities, they wondered why Aurora selected three white men.
"We want to be a part of the process," Jason McBride, a secondary violence prevention specialist with the Struggle of Love Foundation and a member of Aurora's Community Police Task Force, said in September. "The City of Aurora and this community deserve to be a part of the process after Elijah McClain, after all the other incidents."
The city manager must choose a police chief and receive approval from the majority of the Aurora City Council.
"Frankly, city council is the public process," Zvonek said. "We were elected by our constituents and ultimately we will have a say in who is hired as the next police chief."
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