Aurora has discovered the magic word every government uses when it wants applause without surrendering control: “independent.”
According to Sentinel Colorado, the city is moving to create an Office of Public Safety Accountability after four years under a state-mandated consent decree. This new watchdog will supposedly keep police, fire, 911, and detention operations accountable after the outside monitor packs up its clipboard and leaves town.
Sounds serious. Sounds permanent. Sounds like reform with a fresh coat of municipal beige.
Then you read the fine print: the office manager will be hired by the city manager and report administratively to the city manager’s office. Ah yes, independence — government-style — where the watchdog gets its leash, kibble, and employee review from the same building it is supposed to monitor.
City Manager Jason Batchelor pitched the ordinance Monday. The office would investigate critical public safety incidents involving serious injury or death, review use-of-force issues, examine policy and operations, take complaints and commendations, hold community listening sessions, assign family liaisons, and issue annual reports.
That is not a small job. That is a Costco-sized pallet of public accountability dumped on what Aurora has budgeted as two full-time positions in 2026.
Two people. For police, fire, 911, detention, critical incidents, community meetings, annual reports, complaints, policy review, performance meetings, and the emotional blast radius of public safety failures in one of Colorado’s messiest cities.
That is not an oversight office. That is two poor bastards being handed a fire hose, a legal pad, and a prayer.
The reason this exists is not mysterious. After Elijah McClain’s death in 2019 and other cases, state investigators found patterns of racial bias and excessive force. Attorney General Phil Weiser imposed the consent decree. The latest monitor report says Aurora police and fire are substantially compliant, but also says the city needs an independent system to sustain reforms.
Fine. Accountability matters. Transparency matters. Public trust matters. Nobody serious thinks Aurora can just slap a “mission accomplished” banner on the police department and call it a day.
But Colorado government has perfected this scam where “accountability” means creating another office in the same ecosystem, giving it a noble mission statement, promising “unrestricted access,” then immediately explaining that no, no, no, they cannot go on “fishing expeditions.”
Translation: You may look anywhere, as long as you already know exactly where to look and why, which is a hell of a trick when the whole point of oversight is finding out what people don’t want found.
City Attorney Pete Schulte says the office is modeled after the internal auditor because Aurora’s charter keeps resident boards and commissions advisory. That may be legally practical. It may even be the least-bad structure available.
But let’s not insult people’s intelligence by pretending this is some gleaming temple of independence. It is an internal accountability machine built inside City Hall because City Hall is legally allergic to letting actual outsiders touch the controls.
Conservative council members raised the obvious problem: politics. Councilmember Françoise Bergan questioned whether council “consultation” in hiring could let a council majority pressure the city manager. Councilmember Stephanie Hancock wanted the leader certified by a national police oversight organization.
Those are not crazy questions. In Aurora, “keep politics out of this” is not paranoia. It is basic hygiene.
And then, because Aurora politics can never resist stepping on a rake, lawmakers approved a separate resolution the same day restricting police communications, including social media posts, mugshots, and suspect names until a guilty plea or conviction. Some council members accused progressives of using it to pressure Police Chief Todd Chamberlain into quitting.
So Aurora is building public trust by creating an “independent” office inside City Hall while also fighting over how much the police department is allowed to tell the public.
That is peak Front Range governance: secrecy wearing a transparency nametag.
Normal Coloradans are tired of this ritual. Something breaks, the state intervenes, consultants monitor, reports get printed, offices get created, activists say it is not enough, politicians say it is historic, and taxpayers get handed the bill for another layer of government trying to prove the last layer of government is not a disaster.
Aurora may need this office. But if City Hall wants people to believe it is independent, it should stop defining independence like a teenager defining clean room: technically defensible, visually ridiculous, and absolutely not what anyone asked for.
Source: Sentinel Colorado
Just Stop It
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