The Aurora City Council voted unanimously Monday to create a police oversight office as the city’s consent decree comes to an end.

Without discussion, council members approved a final ordinance creating the Office of Public Safety Accountability, prompting city officials to begin the hiring process.

The office will serve as an “independent function reporting administratively to the city manager and functionally to the public safety policy committee.”

Aurora police will be required to notify the office of any critical incidents within 30 minutes and the office will assign liaisons to family members of anyone killed or injured in a critical incident, according to the ordinance.

Office members will also get unrestricted access to employees, information, records, body-worn camera videos, property, equipment and facilities required for reviews and oversight.

The creation of an oversight office has been in the works for years, with approval and $330,000 in funding initiated when the city also entered into a consent decree with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.

At the time, city officials decided to wait to stand the office up until the consent decree finished so as not to have two such bodies simultaneously, according to officials. Aurora’s consent decree is expected to end Feb. 15, 2027.

The consent decree, which the city entered into to implement sweeping changes to Aurora Police Department policing, notably in the use of force and how officers engage with residents, was envisioned to last about five years, according to Independent Monitor Jeff Schlanger.

The latest report, covering Aug. 16, 2025 through Feb. 15, was the 10th of 12 total reports the monitor is expected to produce and marks four of five scheduled years for the monitorship.

As the decree enters its final year, a renewed push for the oversight body was spearheaded by two of the city’s new council members: Amy Wiles and Gianina Horton.