Changes to diversify the Aurora Police Department’s recruiting classes are not working, police officials say, so they want to roll back the reforms and return to tests that were discontinued after a federal investigation into the city’s lack of minority police officers.
Aurora eliminated some tests after the U.S. Department of Justice began a review of the police department in 2009 over its extremely low number of black and Latino officers compared with other departments similar in size.
But as in 2009, the approximately 675-officer force continues to be 85 percent white — in a city that is 28 percent Latino and 16 percent black.
“If the process hasn’t improved, maybe we should bring back some of the testing in the past to make sure we have the quality applicants we are searching for,” said Lt. Troy Edwards, who is spearheading the proposal.
City officials, however, question the timing and reasoning for the department’s desire to return to the past. Among the proposed changes: reinstating the oral boards interviews, reviving a physical fitness exam that was eliminated and introducing a report-writing section to the test.
The Justice Department closed its investigation into Aurora in May 2013 . City officials said part of the reason the federal government dropped its probe was because of the changes made by the police department.
Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan, who had not yet been briefed on the proposal, said last week he was skeptical of the police department’s efforts to revert to some of the old testing ways.
“These are the types of things that caused us problems with the Justice Department before,” Hogan said. “Why we would consider returning to where we were when there is no obvious reason to do so is a mystery to me.”
Edwards said the changes haven’t made a dent in increasing the numbers of the “protected” class — minorities and women — on the police force.
However, of the 17 entry-level recruits in the current Aurora police academy, which graduates Jan. 22, nine are minorities and/or women, according to Matt Cain, administrator for the Aurora Civil Service Commission.
So the adjustments made to entry-level testing appear to have worked for at least last fall, probably the most diverse group ever to make the academy. Combined, the previous six academy classes saw just 22 minority and female recruits.
Edwards acknowledges the improvement in minority recruits is “awesome,” but it’s not translating to more diversity among the rank-and-file.
Interim Police Chief Terry Jones says recruiting minorities is a major priority. The department holds local and national job fairs and targets areas with high minority populations.
“We go out and beat the bushes to bring in qualified minority applicants who are or may be interested in law enforcement,” Jones said.
Given recent high-profile shootings by police in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City, he said, shows a lack of trust with law enforcement that also is a factor in recruiting.
“I think it’s a challenge for law enforcement,” Jones said, “especially with the outlook people have in the minority community.”
Topic for next month
The Aurora Civil Service Commission, which oversees the testing process, will make the final decision on any changes. And the group has been revamped since the Justice Department probe. Four of the five commission members are new, having been on board for less than a year.
Deb Wallace, the chairwoman of the commission, has served for four years. She said the board has tabled considering the changes but will discuss them at a workshop next month.
However, Wallace noted, the proposal comes at a peculiar time, given that the city is in the process of selecting a new police chief to replace longtime Chief Dan Oates, who left in May.
“It’s interesting (the police department) would even ask us to do this while the city is looking for the new chief,” said Wallace, a member of the City Council from 2005 to 2009. “They want to come in through the back door.”
Wallace said the incoming chief certainly will have a role in potential changes. Of the , three are minority men and the other is a woman.
Many in the city have said that increasing the minority numbers within its police department is a top priority for the next top cop.
Nationwide, police departments are struggling to recruit minority officers, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police. That started after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when more soldiers on reserve were called up, the association says.
And it has gotten only more difficult because of the police shootings of minorities in the past several years.
Physical fitness test
Edwards said he first proposed the idea to Oates more than a year ago and was told to move forward. Edwards brainstormed with sergeants and others and decided to make the pitch to the Civil Service Commission.
Currently, potential Aurora police recruits do not have to take a physical fitness test — involving push-ups, sit-ups and running — as they did before the Justice Department probe. Instead, they perform a “job functions” test based on, and very similar to, the one that the Denver Police Department administers.
In the Aurora job-functions test, a recruit is given oral instructions to pursue a fictitious felony suspect. The participant must get out of a patrol car, run 130 yards, negotiating obstacles, crawl under a table through a small opening, climb a set of stairs, identify a suspect from four targets and move a 150-pound dummy 5 feet. All must be in 60 seconds or less.
Edwards would like to keep that test, as well as add a physical fitness exam. In that test, the participant would have to do a minimum number of sit-ups and push-ups, an agility-run test and a beep test, in which someone runs faster or slower based on a series of beeps.
Those tests also are similar to what other departments use. Denver, however, does not use that type of physical fitness exam, according to Brian Kellogg of the Denver Civil Service Commission.
Kellogg said Denver may add a more intense running component than it currently has when it considers revisions to its entry-level testing in the future.
In Aurora, the fitness test would be scored separate from the job-functions test, Edwards said.
Low failure rate
Among the other proposals that Edwards pushes is adding a report-writing section. Edwards noted that the current multiple-choice reading test has an extremely low failure rate — less than 1 percent of the 1,086 applicants who were tested most recently.
Wallace said the Civil Service Commission has to take into account the Justice Department’s probe and whether the proposed changes could bring another review of the police department.
Edwards, however, is confident that adoption of the changes would not lead to another federal investigation.
“I know they’re concerned about the DOJ. They have every reason to be,” he said. “But I don’t believe the changes will cause any issues with the DOJ.”
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175, cillescas@denverpost.com or twitter.com/cillescasdp
