Colorado NAACP leaders express progress with Aurora police, but trust and oversight still key under chief

Aurora's police chief says the department is in a "very good place" nearly two years into his tenure, pointing to falling crime and a new community outreach effort aimed at rebuilding trust.

Chief Todd Chamberlain says Aurora Police Department is seeing measurable improvements.

"Things are going well. We are in a very good place in this organization," Chamberlain told CBS Colorado. "Right now, we have about a 25% reduction in crime. That is an amazing thing for this department and for this community."

Chamberlain said response times have improved, and the city is at a five-year low in non-fatal shootings.

"When you look at a five-year period, and we have less people that are getting shot or getting hurt or getting victimized now than at any time over a five-year period, I think that speaks volumes about what our officers are doing," Chamberlain said.

Leaders with the NAACP say, while they see some progress under Chamberlain, questions remain around accountability, oversight and the department's use of surveillance technology.

Aurora's NAACP chapter is also undergoing leadership changes. Omar Montgomery, the former Aurora NAACP president, is now president of the Rocky Mountain State Conference of the NAACP that covers Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.

Montgomery said the expanded role allows him to address broader issues while still keeping Aurora a priority.

"Aurora still keeps me busy, but we have an amazing NAACP president there, Dr. Thomas Mayes, and him and his exec team are doing amazing work," Montgomery told CBS Colorado.

Part of APD's strategy to improve relationships includes launching the Chief's Community Response Team.

According to the city, the inaugural team includes residents, faith leaders, business owners, advocates and other stakeholders. The group meets bimonthly with police leadership, can receive timely information after critical incidents and is expected to publish a public summary report after its first year.

"The purpose of it is like any relationship is to build trust, and I want to have a relationship with this community," Chamberlain said. "I want them to have a relationship with me as the chief, but I also want them to have a relationship with this department, and I want to bring clarity to what it is that we do."

The chief said the group was intentionally designed to reflect Aurora's diversity.

"We wanted to make sure that we had a myriad of different races, cultures, ethnicities, preferences at every level," Chamberlain said. "We wanted it to really be a reflection of the community itself."

NAACP leaders say they appreciate the increased communication, but believe rebuilding credibility will take time.

Montgomery said NAACP leaders meet quarterly with Chamberlain, and those conversations can sometimes be difficult.

"We're able to get the latest statistics, and also, at times, have some uncomfortable conversations," Montgomery said. "When I say uncomfortable, it's not like it's very adversarial. It's, at times, we don't look at things the same. If there's a videotape that comes out where it looked like there's an abuse of power, we're not going to look at it the same."

Still, he said the meetings are continuing.

In response, Chamberlain said, "Everything is not going to be comfortable. Everything is not going to be perfect. And, again, like I said at the beginning, relationships are built on trust, and that's what I want to make sure of. Even if the conversation is challenging, even if it's something that's difficult, I want it to be truthful, and I want it to be ethical."

"He's very open to reform," said Joshua Jackson, criminal justice chair for the Rocky Mountain NAACP State Conference. "But the challenge is APD has lost credibility in the community, and it's taken several years to do that."

Chamberlain emphasized that the new community response team is not meant to replace oversight.

"This group is not that," the chief said. "This group does not direct. It doesn't provide policy. It doesn't provide oversight. This group is a conduit to their community."

Another major point of debate involves surveillance technology used by Aurora police, including cameras, drones and license plate readers. There are concerns about false matches affecting people of color.

"When civil liberties are being encroached upon, that does bring up multiple questions," Jackson told CBS Colorado. 

Anaya Robinson, public policy director for the ACLU of Colorado, told CBS Colorado last year that there are several risks with facial recognition. 

"Facial recognition, historically, has a problem identifying certain populations of people, mainly Black folks. It's not great at accurately identifying women. It's not great at accurately identifying, generally, people of color," Robinson explained. "It has some trouble when it comes to people with disabilities, because of height differentials. Misidentification is a huge concern."

NAACP leaders say the tools can help solve crimes but must come with strict guardrails.

"When you talk about not just the Flock cameras but also the drones in Aurora, we want to make sure that information is not being abused," Montgomery said. "That's why we need to have citizen oversight to make sure there's transparency."

Jackson said the bigger question is who controls when the technology is used.

"There definitely needs to be some form of civilian review panel or board involved in the decision making," Jackson said.

Chamberlain rejected concerns that the systems discriminate against communities of color.

"The technology that we're implementing does not discriminate based on color at all," Chamberlain said. "It's about allowing police to be more centric and focused on actually who's causing the problem. When you take away things that allow that, you are going to go back to the years where police over policed, where they had to stop everybody because they didn't have any clue."

Chamberlain said the police department conducts audits and already has guardrails in place.

"We have policy and procedures that say exactly what we can and cannot do," Chamberlain said.

Despite the ongoing disagreements, both sides say continuing conversations is important.

"Sometimes, I believe the NAACP gets the stigma of being the Black people's organization," Jackson said. "I think it needs to be very clear that we are an organization that represents people of color. We are for the advancement of people of color, but we are an American institution as well."

NAACP leaders say they are watching Aurora's next accountability step closely -- the hiring of an independent police monitor tied to the city's consent decree.

"I am glad that the city is moving forward. I think Aurora is in a better place," Montgomery said. "But there are still some things we have to address."

Chamberlain said the new community initiative is just one step toward rebuilding trust.

"As long as I'm sitting in this chair, I'm going to continue to take those steps to try to make things better," Chamberlain said. "Like all relationships, if trust is ever broken, it's really hard to keep it going, but I hope that this will have sustainability and I hope it will have an impact."