Time will tell if he decides to pursue a permanent role with the Aurora Police Department, but the man just named as its second interim police chief can’t wait to put on the APD uniform.

Art Acevedo loves cops. He loves community policing, and “I absolutely love crime fighting,” he said.

“To the cops here in Aurora, get ready, because I’ve been out of a police car for over a year now. And I cannot wait to get back in those police cars with y’all, working patrol, checking out dark alleys, going to the hot shots, the calls and really keeping the community safe,” he said.

The City of Aurora on Tuesday announced the hiring of Art Acevedo as its new interim police chief, as the municipality struggles to get candidates to apply for the permanent post.

The city said Acevedo, who served as police chief in Austin and Houston in Texas, and most recently in Miami, will lead the Aurora Police Department on an interim basis starting in December. He has committed to serve as interim chief for at least six months, and possibly up to a year.

Daniel Oates, the current interim police chief, will step back and return to his home and family in Florida upon Acevedo’s arrival.

Oates has known Acevedo for 10 years and said the two are “good friends” at a Tuesday news conference. When the initial search for a permanent police chief in Aurora came up empty handed, Oates said he asked Acevedo if he had interest in the job.

“He’s an extraordinary leader. He has been in very challenging positions in American policing,” Oates said.

Acevedo is bilingual and was born in Cuba. He grew up in California, and spent 14 years all told as a police chief in Austin and in Houston. He also spent 21 years with the California Highway Patrol and began his career as a patrol officer in East Los Angeles in 1986.

He drew national attention while working in Houston as a reform-minded chief who marched alongside protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s death. He has also been hailed for his response during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Acevedo was hired with fanfare to serve as Miami’s chief of police in 2021 but was fired six months later. He sued the city earlier this year, alleging his termination was retaliation for whistleblowing.

In a news release announcing his appointment as interim chief, Acevedo said he is “intimately familiar with the challenges facing diverse communities like Aurora.” At the Tuesday news conference, the new interim chief discussed pressures in the industry, his love for the profession and how he will address challenges Aurora faces while seeking to repair community relations.

He called this generation of police officers “the best generation in my 35 years,” although the work to improve the profession never ends, he said. The new interim chief said he has “a great deal of respect” for the department, and will “never forget the heroism” officers showed the day of the Aurora theater shooting.

Acevedo is grateful that city leaders are not defunding the police, he said, and that they understand “good policing requires an investment. It requires the proper funding for training, equipment. It requires having a benefits package and pay that attracts the very best.”

Acevedo found unity among councilmembers, he said, within their desire for a safe community.

The interim chief said the profession is under strain. Police chiefs used to last three to five years. Amid the tumultuous climate of the past three years, he’s watched as they last as little as 18 months, he said.

“It was shocking to see,” he said.

Acevedo discussed some of his perspective on officer accountability. The interim chief has already asked whether APD has a disciplinary matrix so that officers know what happens if they violate rules. He is also a proponent of education-based discipline, he said, calling a suspension merely punitive.

There is not such thing as perfection, Acevedo said, adding it feels as if he public sometimes expects that standard. Officers have to process situations at lightning speed, he said.

“Even in the most tragic situations, the officers are not making mistakes of the heart, they are making mistakes of the mind. It’s not TV. They don’t get a second or third take. It’s not Hollywood,” he said.

The department can’t always predict how an officer will perform once they have left the controlled environment at the training academy, he said.

“You cannot defend indefensible. Not everybody needs to be a police officer,” he said.

Acevedo called the city’s consent decree an opportunity to provide officers with processes, systems, equipment, training and “everything they need.” A consent decree “actually forces communities to invest in good policing,” he said.

He was slated to meet with the independent monitor on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss where the city was at, he said. Acevedo said he wanted to make clear that “this is not a broken department,” but rather a work in progress.

Acevedo did not offer specific reforms from which he thinks the police department could benefit.

“I think that’s too soon to say,” he said, also promising to always strive for best practices.

He did express an interest in offering police a “real time crime center” that can provide them tactical, immediate information in their effort to catch violent criminals.

At the news conference, City Manager Jim Twombly thanked Oates for stepping in during a difficult time for the department and “at a critical juncture for us.” Aurora’s last chief Vanessa Wilson was fired in April and has recently alleged she was terminated in retaliation for her reform efforts.

The city’s search for her replacement came to an abrupt halt after three of four finalists withdrew from consideration and council did not support the final candidate. Aurora relaunched its search in early October, also amid community criticism regarding a lack of diversity among the previous finalists.

Aurora has struggled to attract candidates since the relaunch. Some recruits approached about the job reportedly have been leery of throwing in for the position. There remains no set timeline by which the city aims to name the next chief.

In a news release announcing his decision to appoint Acevedo, City Manager Jim Twombly said “Chief Acevedo has been a fixture in the national law enforcement community for years and has been vocal about needed and measured improvements in policing and public safety across the country.”