Aurora public safety committee: police report staffing gains, academy plans and falls in several crime categories
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Summary
Aurora Police Department leaders told the Public Safety Committee that sworn staffing is climbing, an academy in January should add dozens of officers, and department dashboards show declines in homicides, nonfatal shootings, robberies and motor‑vehicle theft compared with last year.
Aurora’s Public Safety, Courts and Civil Service Policy Committee heard a detailed update on police staffing and crime trends, with department leaders saying recent hiring and policy changes are beginning to show results.
Speaker 5, identified in the meeting as the police chief, told the committee the department has “authorized 748, current 722 with 26 vacancies,” and that an academy class next January is expected to add "30 to 40" recruits and several lateral officers. “We’re really excited about that,” the chief said, describing plans to continue hiring to approach authorized levels.
The chief also presented year‑to‑date crime figures the department is tracking. He said homicides fell from 33 last year to 26 this year (described as a roughly 21% decline) and that nonfatal shootings dropped from about 89 to 42 (he described this as “over a 50% reduction”). Motor‑vehicle theft and robberies were also reported down year‑over‑year on the department’s dashboards.
“The reduction in nonfatal shootings and vehicle theft is meaningful — each of those is a person affected,” the chief said, noting arrests have increased while use‑of‑force incidents are lower than before. He attributed improvements to a compressed hiring process that reduces candidate loss to other agencies, greater transparency from leadership, tactical changes such as pursuit‑policy revisions, and more proactive enforcement.
Committee members pressed on retail theft, a frequent concern for businesses. The chief said the department designates retail‑theft officers in each district, conducts decoy and deterrence operations with partners and increases off‑duty and marked patrols at targeted locations. “Retail theft is down,” he said, later quantifying a roughly 15% reduction in shoplifting for the year, and cited partnerships with large retailers such as Walmart and King Soopers.
Committee chair (speaker 1) and other members encouraged renewed distribution of deterrence signage and outreach to small businesses ahead of the holiday season.
What’s next: the committee was told a graduation is scheduled for Nov. 20 and that the next basic academy should begin in January; staffing projections and patrol coverage decisions will be data‑driven as the new classes enter field training.
Notes on sources and numbers: the article reports figures and percentage changes as presented by department speakers during the committee meeting. Where numbers were given inconsistently in the discussion, the text states the figures as the speakers presented them rather than reconciling discrepancies.