The Aurora City Council on Monday corralled the city’s police force, instituting new rules that prohibit the department from publicizing booking photographs of suspects unless convicted and require city approval for all departmental social media posts and media releases.
Proponents of the resolution, which passed 6-4, called it a move that will put an end to what they described as editorializing on social media by the Aurora Police Department, including Chief Todd Chamberlain, that puts potentially innocent people in a bad light.
“If he posted the facts, I would absolutely vote no on this,” Councilwoman Amy Wiles said of the chief.
But other council members pushed back, saying the new rules would stifle the department from posting information about the arrest of potentially dangerous suspects living in Aurora neighborhoods.
“Getting information out to residents right away is transparency,” Councilwoman Francoise Bergan said.
Chamberlain expressed frustration with the council’s resolution in a statement he issued hours ahead of the evening meeting.
“The community deserves timely facts and direct communication from the professionals closest to these incidents and operational realities,” he wrote. “Restricting that communication risks creating confusion, speculation, and managed narratives rather than greater public understanding.”
The chief took a shot at protesters who have frequented Aurora City Council meetings over the past couple of years to demand police reform and seek justice for a Black man who was fatally shot by Aurora police nearly two years ago.
When information and perspectives “do not align with the views of certain groups, the answer is to silence those voices rather than allow open and honest public discussion,” Chamberlain wrote.
“And if I, as a public safety leader, cannot discuss or share concerns without reprisal from the local level, my department and I are unable to effectively be what Aurora needs — candid, forthright and open about how our work impacts the daily lives of those we serve,” he wrote.
The Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police also weighed in on the resolution Monday, saying it would “centralize and restrict law enforcement communications in ways that risk delay, confusion and reduced transparency — the very opposite of what communities deserve.”
But Auon’tai Anderson, a frequent attendee at Aurora City Council meetings and a critic of the city’s police department, said the department publicizing photos and names of suspects who haven’t been found guilty of a crime can gravely impact individuals’ futures.
“Jobs disappear, opportunities disappear, reputations disappear — but APD gets its press cycle,” he said.
Even City Attorney Pete Schulte told the council that the police should be able to post important information for the public safety — “we just don’t need the editorializing.”
Another resident at the meeting said the resolution is the “bare minimum” the city should do to place greater control over a police department that has been on a turbulent ride for the better part of a decade, with several fatal police shootings of unarmed Black men grabbing headlines.
Following the death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain, who in 2019 was stopped by police while walking home and injected by paramedics with a lethal dose of the sedative ketamine, the department entered into a consent decree with the Colorado Attorney General’s office.
The multiyear agreement calls for the police department to change its use-of-force, hiring and training policies. An outside monitor was assigned to send progress reports to the judge overseeing the decree to ensure the city is complying with it.
In the meantime, often boisterous crowds have regularly gathered at council meetings since Kilynn Lewis, an unarmed Black man, was shot and killed by an Aurora SWAT officer on May 23, 2024. The disruption in council chambers spawned a federal lawsuit from a protester alleging the city was limiting her ability to express herself.
The issue was resolved through a settlement between the parties. In March, the city agreed to provide up to one hour for the public to speak at the start of regularly scheduled meetings.
Monday’s resolution specifically states that the city’s communications department “must approve all social media posts and all media releases” before the police department releases them.
The department “shall not post booking photographs (‘mug shots’) and/or suspect names publicly until the subject of the arrest has pled guilty or been convicted of a crime,” unless the city manager OKs publication on a case-by-case basis.
“City Council understands that the police department wants to highlight their good work, which can be done without using names or booking photographs prior to case adjudication,” the resolution reads.
The new rules also forbid members of the police force from posting on official city social media sites about any “pending or enacted city, state or federal legislation” without city approval. They can post about such issues on their personal social media accounts, the new measure says.
Aurora’s city council flipped from a conservative majority to a progressive majority in the November election. Several of the winning candidates campaigned on continuing the city’s efforts at criminal justice reform.
