A police officer or community member wanting to make a complaint to the Internal Affairs Bureau would have to walk right by the Aurora police chief’s office to do so.
Then, a pass-through door connected the IAB office with the chief’s.
Not exactly the most inviting of situations.
“I’ve always felt that IA should not be the in the belly of the beast,” said .
Metz and the department on Friday announced changes to internal affairs to make it more accessible and help reduce the backlog of cases. Those include adding three extra staff members, including two agents, or detectives, appointing a commander (Terry Brown) to oversee it and moving it away from police headquarters. In all, there will be seven people working in IAB, which investigates allegations of police misconduct.
Police Commander Terry Brown will head internal affairs. It is now located several blocks from headquarters at 6 South Abilene Street. It also has its own entrance at the new site where IAB moved several weeks ago.
Sgt. Bob Wesner, president of the Aurora Police Association, applauded the changes, saying some cases took nearly a year to investigate. Metz has placed a limit on cases of 180 days, except in extenuating circumstances.
“We’re just hopeful it will help them to complete a more thorough investigation,” Wesner said.
several months ago and has since made changes to his staff and now is revamping internal affairs. He is planning more changes in the coming months.
“My whole thing is to make sure we have processes in place to promote best practices of a major police department,” Metz said.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175, cillescas@denverpost.com or twitter.com/cillescasdp
