AURORA, Colo. — News that Aurora's interim police chief Art Acevedo is stepping down has created waves in an already turbulent time for the city and police department.
Aurora is in the middle of a consent decree that was issued for the department after Elijah McClain's death aimed at fixing how police officers use force and interact with people of color. Now, many in town are wondering what, if any impact Acevedo's departure could have on Aurora meeting those requirements.
The city manager said a change in leadership doesn't mean the consent decree requirements will slow down.
"So we're going to take some time, going to take a few weeks to figure out what's next," said Aurora City Manager Jason Batchelor.
As Aurora Police prepare to say goodbye to Interim Police Chief Art Acevedo, the department will usher in its fourth leader in two years.
Deputy Chief Heather Morris will take the helm at APD, at least for now.
"I know we've got the right people in the right seats," Acevedo said.
Despite continued change-ups in leadership, Jeff Schlanger, independent monitor for the city of Aurora said they don't expect the progress made towards the decree's requirements by the city and the department to cease. "100%. It's less about who sits in the seat of chief of police than it is about the mandates of consent decree," he said.
And while the whiplash from the constant changeover for APD's top job is worrying to some, Schlanger said turnover in this situation is actually quite common.
"This isn't out of the ordinary," Schlanger said. "I've been doing this for a long time and I've never been involved with a consent decree where there hasn't been a change of chiefs."
And Aurora inches closer toward the consent decree's two-year mark. Much of that time was dedicated to revising policies and training, Schlanger said.
“There are still a couple of policies that need tweaking, some training that needs to be delivered. Specifically, those areas are discipline, we’re developing a disciplinary matrix and bias training for the department. We’re working on the development of some new bias training which I think will be excellent,” Schlanger said.
But soon, they'll be able to move forward, determining if these policies and trainings are having the right effect on the streets of Aurora.
"We're moving into this new phase which is really testing the operational integrity of the policies and the training to ensure that the people in the community are feeling the reforms, that the reforms have taken root," Schlanger said.
And whoever is in charge for now or for good at APD, Schlanger stressed Aurora still needs to follow the consent decree. But, he said, whoever has that leadership seat can make achieving those mandates more or less difficult.
And as Aurora moves into the decree's final phase, this next year is critical for the department and the future of policing in Aurora.
"The department as you can imagine have the best policies, have the best training but if the cops out on the street aren't following those policies or training, then really it's not worth much," Schlanger said. "So we need to ensure that really everything we have done for the last two years is being realized on the streets of Aurora.”