Aurora residents on Wednesday heard from two firms the city picked as finalists to oversee a consent decree that officials hope will lead to systemic changes in the city’s police and fire departments.

Residents wanted to know how each finalist would increase diversity within the police and fire departments, work with the labor unions and remain independent from the safety agencies given the city is funding the monitor position.

In an online public forum, the finalists presented proposed monitor teams made up of people with backgrounds in law enforcement and consent decree oversight. Theron Bowman, a former police chief and city manager with experience overseeing consent decrees, would lead a team from The Bowman Group.

The other finalist is IntegrAssure, led by Jeff Schlanger, an attorney who has worked as chief of staff in the Manhattan district attorney’s office and as deputy risk management for the New York Police Department.

“Integrity assurance is … making sure that what should be getting done is in fact getting done, and that is exactly the goal of the monitor,” Schlanger said.

The consent decree arose from a report by Attorney General Phil Weiser that found the city’s police and fire departments have violated residents’ rights by using excessive force, failing to document stops as required by law and using the sedative ketamine unlawfully.

The state-level agreement is the first of its kind in Colorado. The policing accountability law passed by the state legislature in 2020 authorizes the Department of Law to investigate whether law enforcement agencies have patterns and practices of violating people’s civil rights.

Weiser’s report was released in September, a few weeks after he announced criminal indictments by a grand jury against three Aurora police officers and two paramedics in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain. McClain, a Black man, was forcefully subdued by officers and injected with ketamine by a paramedic while detained, even though he was not suspected of a crime.

Reforms outlined in the consent decree include:

• Creating specific guidance on police’s interactions with people to address actual and perceived bias.
• Improving use-of-force policies and training to avoid unnecessary escalation of encounters.
• Improving diversity within the police and fire departments.
• Developing a new system for data collection about police interactions with community members as required by law.
• Requiring a review of policies and practices for using chemical sedatives to make sure the fire department is using them legally before they can be reintroduced.

Aurora’s fire department discontinued its use of ketamine in September 2020. Chief Fernando Gray has previously said the department does not have plans to begin using the sedative again.

Aurora’s City Council voted to adopt the consent decree in late November.

Don Crowson, the fire chief in Arlington, Texas, who would be on IntegrAssure’s monitor team, acknowledged the need to balance the role of a chief who represents the community’s interests and the role of a union, which represents the individual and business interests of its members.

He said including each in the process will be key.

“Letting them have a say in certain steps of the process as necessary, because the reality is, to achieve an organization that is reflective of its community is the No. 1 goal. To connect citizens with the services they need is the primary objective,” he said.

Crowson added that although it’s beneficial for police and fire departments to have good working relationships with each other, that shouldn’t take precedent over clear, direct accountability for each agency.

Ashley Brown Burns, who would serve on The Bowman Group’s oversight team, said she believes there wouldn’t be a conflict of independence because she said the police and fire departments and whichever firm the city chooses to serve as monitor would share a common goal of providing the best possible public safety services to Aurora and making sure officers feel supported.

“We think everyone would ultimately want the same thing,” she said.

The consent decree monitor will be separate from an independent monitor position for discipline and other accountability in the police department the city plans to fill this year.