Aurora Consent Decree

On Nov. 22, 2021, the city of Aurora and the Colorado Attorney General jointly and voluntarily entered into a mutually beneficial legal agreement known as a consent decree, which the city considers its commitment to progress. The consent decree provides the Aurora Police Department (APD), Aurora Fire Rescue (AFR) and Aurora Civil Service Commission (CSC) with the opportunity to allocate resources, review current policies and adopt new ones, and focus training efforts in five key areas, also referred to as pillars:
• Addressing Racial Bias in Policing
• Constitutional Policing
• Chemical Restraints
• Recruitment, Hiring and Promotion
• Accountability and Transparency

The pillars include 78 individual agency mandates, which upon completion will fulfill Aurora's consent decree. The consent decree is scheduled to sunset after five years, or when all mandates have been accomplished. The consent decree encompasses two years of operational changes followed by the current three-year monitoring period:

IntegrAssure was named the Aurora consent decree monitor on February 15, 2022. IntegrAssure’s role is to provide technical assistance on new policies and training to ensure mandates are met on schedule. Progress is communicated to the community through regularly published reports, including four quarterly reports in year one and semi-annual reports thereafter.

Reports of the Independent Consent Decree Monitor:
• Period 7 (Issued: Oct. 15, 2024)
• Period 6 (Issued: Apr. 15, 2024)
• Period 5 (Issued: Oct. 15, 2023)
• Period 4 (Issued: Apr. 15, 2023)
• Period 3 (Issued: Jan. 13, 2023)
• Period 2 (Issued: Oct. 15, 2022)
• Period 1 (Issued: July 15, 2022)

The city is in substantial compliance with 57 of 78 mandates that have been reviewed to date. This represents 73 percent of the 78 mandates in the consent decree. These are significant achievements for APD, AFR, CSC and the city. Of the 21 mandates that are not yet in substantial compliance, 20 are partially compliant and on the right track.

The Monitor’s assessments for each reporting period now include “operational integrity” evaluations to determine whether APD, AFR and CSC have substantially complied with the operational or functional aspects of the consent decree’s mandates for that period, and the Monitor will provide a summary assessment of operational integrity for each of the seven sections of the consent decree.

Police Progress

APD is committed to meeting the expectations of each of the pillars:

Addressing Racial Bias

APD is committed to addressing racial bias through the creation of training and best practices related to officer stops, arrests and uses of force, and to engage in critical decision-making by acknowledging the role that bias can play in enforcement decisions and developing strategies to combat bias.

Constitutional Policing

APD is committed to developing a documentation system that complies with state law and allows for a prompt and transparent review of how officers interact with the community.

Chemical Restraints

APD is committed to its partnership with AFR and yields to the expertise of medical professionals to determine when the use of chemical restraints is appropriate and lawful.

Recruitment, Hiring and Promotion

APD is committed to recruiting, hiring and promotion processes that are fair and equitable to all prospective candidates and existing employees. The department is committed to drawing candidates from a wide variety of backgrounds to ensure the department is reflective of the city of Aurora, the most diverse city in Colorado.

Accountability and Transparency

APD is committed to holding its personnel accountable and to the open and transparent sharing of information with the community.

In February 2024, APD launched its Online Transparency & Accountability Portal, available at AuroraGov.org/APDPortal. The transparency portal provides the public access to regularly updated data and information about agency demographics, crime statistics and uses of force.

More Resources

Below are more Consent Decree Monitor resources and FAQs:
AuroraMonitor.org - Office of the Independent Consent Decree Monitor for the City of Aurora
Connect with the Monitor (provide your comments)

Public Meetings and Informational Sessions:

• Oct. 24, 2023 – Period 5 Highlights
• May 2, 2023 – Period 4 Highlights
• Feb. 16, 2023 – Community Advisory Council (CAC) Community Meeting
• Aug. 9, 2022 – Consent Decree Monitor Town Hall II
• July 15, 2022 - Period 1 Q&A with CAC
• April 19, 2022 – Consent Decree Monitor Town Hall

FAQs