As the Aurora Police Department’s consent decree under the Colorado Attorney General’s Office enters its final scheduled year, the department has made significant progress but will likely not be fully compliant by the decree’s end.

The consent decree, which the city entered into to implement sweeping changes to 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 tenth of 12 total reports the monitor is expected to produce and marks four of five scheduled years for the monitorship.

Aurora’s consent decree is expected to end on Feb. 15, 2027.

The process was prompted by the death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain, who died after an encounter with officers in 2019 as he walked home from a convenience store.

McClain’s 2019 death was the result of a violent police stop, which is the main reason the Aurora police and fire departments are under a consent decree and why city officials are trying to ensure public servants who abuse their power are held accountable.

In September 2021, the Attorney General’s Office announced that the investigative team found patterns and practices of racially biased policing, excessive uses of force, and failure to record legally required information.

Additionally, the investigation concluded that Aurora Fire Rescue had patterns and practices of administering ketamine in violation of the law.

In the latest report, the monitor said APD is in substantial compliance for “a significant portion of the mandates,” but not for all of them.

“Given that there are mandates of the CD that are not yet in substantial compliance, and many additional mandates that will not have satisfied the requirement to maintain three years of substantial compliance, it is clear, at this point, that the Monitor will not be able to report to the Court that full substantial compliance with the CD has been achieved,” the report says.

In total, the decree outlines 78 mandates as the basis for the monitorship. By the end of the most recent reporting period, 63 of those mandates were in substantial compliance.

The monitor, IntegrAssure, will work with the city and the Attorney General’s Office over the next reporting period to decide how to address the expected scenario.

There are several mandates the department still needs to work on, including its accountability policies, bias training and transparency, according to the report.

Despite having work to do, the department’s trajectory is still positive, the report says.

A stakeholder survey of about 1,000 people showed fewer negative perceptions of the APD than the same survey showed in 2022, according to the monitor.

In March, the monitor decided Aurora Fire Rescue was in substantial compliance with requirements related to use of ketamine and other chemical sedatives, concluding reporting on that element of the decree.

The monitor also praised the APD for changes officials have made following recent officer-involved shootings. Five OIS incidents happened during or shortly before the ninth reporting period, the report said. None have happened in the recent reporting period.

In that time, the department made several changes, including bringing in more less-lethal devices, expanding training on those devices and mandating every officer carry a taser, the report said.

The report called OIS incidents “among the most consequential events confronting APD and the community.”

“The measure of reform lies not in the absence of critical incidents, but in the quality, integrity, transparency, and learning demonstrated in response to them,” the monitor wrote in the recent report. “Indeed, APD has shown a commitment to the culture of continuous improvement by making notable changes in policy even before the final investigation and adjudication of the individual incidents.”

For the last two years, protesters have attended every Aurora City Council meeting to speak about police shooting victims, advocating for changes to the police department and more community oversight.

In the last month, councilmembers have moved forward with a resolution that, if passed at a future regular council meeting, would state that the council “stands in mourning” with people who have lost loved ones to officer-involved shootings.

In early April, an Aurora officer shot and killed 23-year-old Amare Garlington, who stabbed the officer multiple times in the head.

As the decree enters its final year, Aurora officials are working on standing up a police oversight office. Councilmembers Amy Wiles and Gianina Horton are spearheading that effort and have held a series of community meetings to determine how to proceed.

The full consent decree report can be read on the city’s website.