Speaker 1: Joining me. I'm thrilled to have with us.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: He's been at the Aurora Police Department as chief for
Speaker 2: about a year ish, now coming from the Los Angeles
Speaker 2: Police Department after decades there, Police Chief Todd Chamberlain, Welcome
Speaker 2: to the Mandy Connell Show.
Speaker 4: Hey, thank you, Mandy very much. Glad to be here.
Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you a little bit.
Speaker 2: You came from Los Angeles, which seems like that's kind
Speaker 2: of a I mean, we've all watched the cop shows, right,
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm practically a member of the LAPD
Speaker 2: after all the cop shows that I've watched. How does
Speaker 2: that department and coming to Aurora, how are they different?
Speaker 3: You know what may be inside a little bit, but
Speaker 3: I think the passion for the profession is very consistent
Speaker 3: in both organizations. You have individuals that are really committed
Speaker 3: to unity service and again, I think you have a
Speaker 3: community that really appreciates the needs law enforcement and trying
Speaker 3: to have that collaboration and that input.
Speaker 4: I think that is without question, one of the similar.
Speaker 2: So you walked into a situation and I'm sure you
Speaker 2: looked into Aurora's Police department before you even put in
Speaker 2: the application. Aurora PD has had a bumpy few years,
Speaker 2: and outsider looking in, I would say there has been
Speaker 2: a there was for some time a critical failure of
Speaker 2: leadership in that department. And I have several Aurora Police
Speaker 2: Department officers who communicate with me on a regular basis,
Speaker 2: some now former Aurora.
Speaker 1: PD people who left before you got there.
Speaker 2: When you came in, what did you do to establish
Speaker 2: with the ranks that you were going to lead them
Speaker 2: out of that to a better position both in the
Speaker 2: community within the department, sort of work on those whole
Speaker 2: relations while working on the relations within the building.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was something I'm very happy because I've
Speaker 3: actually had experiences going through organizations where they did have
Speaker 3: troubling times where there was a rough path, where everything
Speaker 3: wasn't perfect.
Speaker 4: And so again that skill set and that.
Speaker 3: Knowledge really helped me here be able to step into
Speaker 3: this organization.
Speaker 4: And I think something else to remember too.
Speaker 3: It wasn't just specifically maybe the City of Aurora, but
Speaker 3: law enforcement in general.
Speaker 4: I think over the past five years has had.
Speaker 3: A really hard time. I think it's been unnecessarily villainized.
Speaker 3: I think that it really impacted how law enforcement practitioners
Speaker 3: perform their function and their duty and so for me,
Speaker 3: it was an opportunity to step into an environment that
Speaker 3: I was aware of, an environment that I've experienced in
Speaker 3: the path, and let them know that I'm here to
Speaker 3: support them as well as support the community. And so
Speaker 3: that first thing was letting them know again that they
Speaker 3: do have that support. If what they do is proper,
Speaker 3: if it's women polity and procedure, and if it's epical,
Speaker 3: I'm going to be there to support them and make
Speaker 3: sure that we're going in the right direction and we're
Speaker 3: giving the service to the community of Aurora that it deserves.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like morale in the building has improved,
Speaker 2: because I'll tell you, you know, comments that I get a
Speaker 2: few years ago were not good and a lot of
Speaker 2: the officers there were like, I'm just looking to do
Speaker 2: something different. Do you feel like morale has improved? And
Speaker 2: are you seeing better retention in that respect?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Actually, we keep track of all that, and so
Speaker 3: without question, morale has definitely seemed to be going.
Speaker 4: In the right directory. We're going in the right way.
Speaker 3: Get a lot of positive feedback, and it's not just
Speaker 3: what I hear just there's a lot of people that
Speaker 3: can just take a your ear, but it's what I
Speaker 3: hear from the community. It's what I hear other people
Speaker 3: saying that officers are telling them and how they're how
Speaker 3: they're being served, and how they feel confident in performing
Speaker 3: their job and their task.
Speaker 4: Because it's a really challenging job. This is not a
Speaker 4: job for the week.
Speaker 3: And I don't mean week physically, I mean just just
Speaker 3: the week in heart, because it's really complex.
Speaker 4: It takes a lot out of you.
Speaker 3: It's a huge commitment, but the payoff is immeasurable if
Speaker 3: it's done correctly and done properly. And so when you
Speaker 3: talk about attrition again, we are really in a good place.
Speaker 3: We are actually approaching for the time in a very
Speaker 3: long time. As of January, the department should be at
Speaker 3: full staffing levels of what we are authorized. So that's
Speaker 3: a huge win, not only for the City of Aurora.
Speaker 3: That's unique in law enforcement across the nation to have
Speaker 3: actually full staffing.
Speaker 4: So I know that what our men and women are doing.
Speaker 3: Is resonating with them. And then also our attrition ring
Speaker 3: has really dropped off from where we were losing a
Speaker 3: lot of people in the organization. And three we had
Speaker 3: a twelve percent attrition rate where a lot of people
Speaker 3: were leaving. Twenty four we had a nine percent and
Speaker 3: right now here to date we're at about a.
Speaker 4: Five percent attrition rate. So people are coming into the
Speaker 4: organization and the people that are here are staying. So
Speaker 4: those two things are incredibly positive.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: Is that part of the reason that Aurora has seen
Speaker 2: a pretty good drop in violent crime? A few years
Speaker 2: ago they were the number one city in the state
Speaker 2: and violent crime rates and now they have dropped below Denver.
Speaker 2: Is it because of that continuity of officer?
Speaker 1: Is it because you're at full staff.
Speaker 3: I think it's more than just the staffing, and I
Speaker 3: think it's a myriad of different things. And those things
Speaker 3: one involved the technology that we have introduced, which have
Speaker 3: been incredibly helpful to allow the officers to.
Speaker 4: Perform their task more efficiently and effectively.
Speaker 3: I think also if you look at some of the
Speaker 3: policy modifications that we have done in regards to both
Speaker 3: internal and external things, and what I mean by that
Speaker 3: is administrative issues or how personal complaints are handled, how
Speaker 3: force reviews they're done, giving ownership back to our leadership,
Speaker 3: letting them know that they are leaders within the organizations,
Speaker 3: which was.
Speaker 4: Not part of the equation before.
Speaker 3: And then it's also been modifications to how we fight crime,
Speaker 3: and that's been a big part of it. One of
Speaker 3: those aspects again involved the pursuit policy. So when I
Speaker 3: first got here, if an officer dout behind the stolen
Speaker 3: car activated their emergency lights because they've verified, hey, this
Speaker 3: car was stolen, only thing a person had to do
Speaker 3: accelerate away and our officers would turn off the lights,
Speaker 3: make a left turn and go away.
Speaker 4: I couldn't abide by that.
Speaker 3: You're talking to fellon the offense committed by somebody, and
Speaker 3: when you think of the loss of the car, that
Speaker 3: can be incredibly detrimental to someone and change their whole life.
Speaker 3: And so we modified our pursuit policy which allowed our
Speaker 3: officers to go into pursuit of those vehicles effectively do it,
Speaker 3: making sure we're doing it properly and ethically.
Speaker 4: And with that we have seen again we're I think
Speaker 4: we went from.
Speaker 3: Five pursuits last year to right now as far as
Speaker 3: pursuits were, stolen vehicles were somewhere in the area of
Speaker 3: about one and eighty eight, So that has drastically changed.
Speaker 3: But what's more important than just to pursue or the
Speaker 3: stopping of that stolen vehicle is what we are finding
Speaker 3: of stealing vehicles. We're having people that are on parole,
Speaker 3: people that are on probation. We're getting a lot of
Speaker 3: hand guns out of these vehicles. We're getting a lot
Speaker 3: of repeat offenders. And so again, people weren't selling cars
Speaker 3: is to drive them back and forth to work or
Speaker 3: something like that. They were stealing cars to go out
Speaker 3: and victimize other people, right, And so you have really
Speaker 3: changed that dynamic. And again I think that's something that
Speaker 3: has really improved or what we've been able to do.
Speaker 3: But as far as the overall crime fighting and where
Speaker 3: those reductions and numbers come, it's one hour in community engagement,
Speaker 3: with partnership with community finding out we're going in to
Speaker 3: the right place, doing the right thing at the right time.
Speaker 4: But I think a big.
Speaker 3: Part of that is allowing police officers to get police
Speaker 3: officers to get letting them know.
Speaker 4: That I want to see proactive policing.
Speaker 3: I want to see individuals that are victimizing other people
Speaker 3: taken off the street, not just with radio calls, but
Speaker 3: with just foundationally solid proactive policing. So that has really
Speaker 3: been the term. It's not one thing, it's just it's
Speaker 3: a miriad of different loans.
Speaker 1: How is the.
Speaker 2: Relationship between activist organizations and Aurora who have had and
Speaker 2: I would say in pass rightfully so, they've had concerns
Speaker 2: about policing and police leadership. How is your relationship with
Speaker 2: some of those organizations, you know, I.
Speaker 3: Hope it's solid. I hope it's a good relationship. But
Speaker 3: I also I'm very open about this. I'm not going
Speaker 3: to have an entire city be evaluated by small particular groups.
Speaker 3: And what I mean by that is sometimes you can
Speaker 3: get what I always call the loudest duck in the room,
Speaker 3: whereas the people that screen, that that protest, that yell,
Speaker 3: that say everything is wrong, and organizations and maybe even
Speaker 3: the City of Aurora, the or police department basically.
Speaker 4: Capgual ages for those small groups.
Speaker 3: And what really is kind of frustrating is that the
Speaker 3: larger silent group that really doesn't say anything, that doesn't
Speaker 3: you know, have that that that vocal nature, they get forgotten.
Speaker 3: And within that forgotten group is a lot of victimization.
Speaker 3: And so again I I without question here I understand
Speaker 3: the voices of the activist groups.
Speaker 4: I am here to support them in every way I
Speaker 4: possibly can.
Speaker 3: This department is here to support them, but I also
Speaker 3: know that there's a much larger population that we have
Speaker 3: to focus on as well, and so that balance, to me,
Speaker 3: is really important making sure that one we listen to
Speaker 3: those individuals that have problems, concerns and issues, but also
Speaker 3: they don't set the narrative for the entire population of
Speaker 3: the entire community, and unfortunately, I think in a lot
Speaker 3: of ways, especially over the past five years, that unfortunately
Speaker 3: has been normalized.
Speaker 2: Aimen to that, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain. I really
Speaker 2: appreciate you stop and buy for a visit. I'd love
Speaker 2: to have you for a longer visit next time. Keep
Speaker 2: up the good work.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much. I have a great day, all right.
Speaker 2: That is Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain,