AURORA, Colo. – The Aurora City Council appointed 13 members to its new Community Police Task Force, which will be a citizen board tasked with making recommendations to improve the relationship between city residents and the police department.
City officials announced the creation of the task force in February after a slew of incidents involving Aurora police officers, but its creation was put on hold until last week, when the officials announced changes to department policies and an independent investigation into Elijah McClain’s death.
On Monday, the city council appointed 12 voting members of the new task force and one non-voting ex-officio member. The council will appoint the 14th member of the task force at a June 22 meeting. The task force will be facilitated by Dr. Ryan Ross, a community advocate.
The city says the task force will evaluate current policies and make recommendation on how to improve communication between APD and Aurora residents. The city said that could potentially include a “resident-involved/resident-based review process of critical police incidents, operations, practices and procedures.”
The task force members appointed Monday are:
· Kevin Cox, for Aurora Public Schools
· Thomas Mayes, for the Aurora Key Community Response Team
· Topazz McBridge, for the Aurora Community of Faith
· Omar Montgomery, for the Aurora chapter of the NAACP
· Jessica Price, for Cherry Creek Public Schools
· Jamie Ray, for criminal justice reform organizations
· Robert Chase
· Jason McBride
· Lindsay Minter
· Kristen Pough
· Jeanette Rodriguez
· Vicki Scott
The ex-officio, non-voting member is Aurora Police Department officer Virgil Majors.
The appointed members will be on the task force for a two-year term or whenever the task force is disbanded, whichever is sooner. Voting members will pick a chair or co-chairs at the task force’s first meeting.
The city also announced Tuesday the four finalists for the Aurora police chief position, which includes current Interim Chief Vanessa Wilson.