The primary responsibility of the Aurora Police Department, including its top brass, is to keep our community safe. The chief of police must be a strong leader, somebody who can retain and attract the best available officers, and who can effectively and competently manage a department of over 700 employees. It is in these critical areas of responsibility that Chief Vanessa Wilson fell short. Broken morale and a lack of trust in leadership across the department ran deep and was obvious with massive departures of officers, a lopsided vote of no confidence, scathing exit interviews, and anemic academy classes to replace those lost.

I believe that, while Chief Wilson did good work in a very difficult time through her intentional and sincere community outreach, the necessary work of engaging with the community is only one of the many critical responsibilities of the chief of police.

The announcement of Wilson’s removal has raised understandable concern from those in the community who supported her and her efforts to restore trust in the community. For me, the decision made by City Manager Twombly brought hope for a safer Aurora. My hope is for a new chief that can tackle all the critical issues facing our city and the Aurora Police Department, and not just some of them.

For those who expressed concern, most seem to believe that Chief Wilson had done a good job at reaching out to the community and rebuilding trust by being present, willing to listen, and holding officers accountable for their unacceptable actions. The worry seems to be that with her departure, the efforts to build and sustain trust with the community will leave with her. Despite the baseless claims from those looking to score political points, nothing could be further from the truth. Nobody wants to see the work done to restore trust between APD and our community rolled back in anyway whatsoever.

I supported the decisions made by Wilson to relieve officers for misconduct — however, I became increasingly concerned about the hundreds who retired early or left voluntarily, some for other law enforcement agencies or governmental offices at the same time crime continued to terrorize our neighborhoods.

Somebody skilled at building relationships in the community and popularity in the media is not a substitute for a complete leader capable of building and sustaining a police force that can keep our community safe. We can and should expect our chief of police to be simultaneously capable of both.

The mismanagement of the department went beyond personnel issues.

APD has long held a reputation of delayed compliance with the Colorado Criminal Justice Record Act, an important tool for ensuring transparency to the public it serves. This issue didn’t get better under Wilson’s watch, and a recent internal audit found that it had become worse, with the culture in the records division inadequate to address the challenge.

A second audit conducted by an outside consulting firm uncovered another failure of management in the records department revealing a transcriptions backlog of over 2,500 records. The report released by the audit team raised an immediate red flag, suggesting that the backlog demanded immediate attention. The report highlighted that this type of administrative backlog has the potential to create more victims by allowing offenders who are not investigated and arrested to re-offend while their original case languishes in the police department records division.

According to the audit, “It is administrative errors and failures such as this that lead to cases like the Charleston, SC church mass murder and the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, both of which would not have happened had law enforcement not erred in the processing of prior cases involving the suspects.”

This type of gross mismanagement of police records is unacceptable.

As our city begins the search for a new chief of police, I want those who are concerned that the good work Wilson did in the community will be lost to know that I am fully committed to supporting a new chief who will continue the critical work to keep and build trust in the community.

I want a chief who will clearly define for the men and women who serve our community what acceptable police work looks like based on federal, state, and city law. I expect that chief to hold any officer who steps out of bounds accountable. I also expect the new chief to be willing to stand, unapologetically, with any officer when they do everything right.

I ran for City Council because I believe in the incredible potential of our city and our residents. The rise in crime and the desperate need to improve public safety threatens that very potential.

As part of the Aurora Action Plan the City Council recently passed to address crime, we highlight the need to have a fully funded and fully staffed police department. We all need the Aurora Police Department to be the finest law enforcement agency in the country. Their success is our success. I believe a new chief can put us on that path and that is why I will remain hopeful for our future.

Dustin Zvonek is an at-large member of the Aurora City Council.