The Force Review Board fails to ask broader questions about how an officer could have prevented an incident from escalating and instead focuses on smaller questions, investigators with InegrAssure wrote in a report made public Monday.
The finding was part of the consent decree monitor’s first public report tracking the Aurora Police Department’s implementation of a series of mandated reforms following an investigation by the Colorado attorney general. The investigation found the department regularly engaged in policing that was biased against people of color and routinely used excessive force. IntegrAssure will release 12 reports about the department’s progress.
City and police leaders have cooperated with the consent decree monitor and have made substantial progress on several of the mandated changes, the report states. Investigators with IntegrAssure honed in on how the department handled a May 15, 2021, traffic stop that nearly devolved into a police shooting because the incident “highlights many of the issues facing policing and the community and the critical role of best-practice policies, training and accountability systems.”