Study session of the Aurora City.

For the Aurora City Council for Monday, February 23rd, 2020.

So let's call the order with the clerk, please call the rule.

Mayor Kaufman.

Here.

Councilmember Andrews.

Councilmember Bergen.

Here.

Mayor Po Tim Coombs present.

Councilmember Gardner.

Councilmember Hancock.

Councilmember Horton.

Councilmember Jackson.

Councilmember Lawson.

Councilmember Medina?

Councilmember Wiles.

There are no uh there's no mayor's update.

Um item 1A1.

Uh this is uh I talked to our district attorney, a uh Amy Padding from the 18th Judicial District uh about uh giving a presentation that she I think very effectively gave to the Aurora chapter of the NAACP uh over the the cert uh process uh so uh district attorney floor is yours all right well mayor thank you for having me as the mayor mentioned um uh I along with uh sometimes Sheriff Brown or other people from the sheriff's office have been giving presentations to just further explain the critical incident response team process.

So this is our process that we have if there is an officer involved um shooting.

So um I'm the district attorney for the 18th judicial district.

We serve only Arapo County, so we cover the part of Aurora that is south of Colfax essentially.

So for example, if there was a shooting north of Colfax, that would be in the 17th judicial district in in Adams County, and they have a similar but slightly different um protocol.

Um and so you know what is CERT?

So CERT is critical incident response team, and it's a group of investigators from various um police departments within the 18th judicial district, so within Arapaho County, and they work together and also investigators from my office.

I have um numerous investigators in my office, essentially have a detective squad in my office, and so um we all get together when there's a uh uh a critical incident uh and respond.

And so uh in our district, the CERT investigates where an officer uh uses uh deadly force or or the or the other series spotily injury.

And the investigators look into the facts uh about what happened.

And so um we've listed here the various um law enforcement agencies that contribute people to the to the scene.

Um and it's important to note that once there is a critical incident report, let's say it there was an Aurora police officer involved in the shooting, Aurora uh police department will not take the lead on that cert investigation.

So we're trying to you know have a bit of separation.

So for example, the sheriff's office might take the lead on that investigation, or Littleton Police Department or Engwood Police Department, something like that.

So we don't have the law enforcement agency conducting the investigation itself.

Um actually before I get to this slide, essentially what will be going on is if there is a uh a fatality uh or a uh serious injury involving an officer's use of force.

Uh we we respond right away.

So it and I personally get a phone call.

I've uh come down to APD in the middle of the night.

If I'm in town, I come myself.

Um attorneys from my office will come, investigators, and then other members of the cert team.

Uh and so we're on scene uh right that day, right when it happens to start the investigation.

And the reason we do things um this way is because we have state law that requires first of all that we we um establish a cert team, and um that we post the protocol for the cert team on our website, which we have on uh it's on my office's website, it's C O D 18.gov.

And we do have protocols there.

They are protocols that were uh passed at the end of the last administration, so we are in the process of updating those, and we hope to have those updated um fairly soon.

And so the cert teams were established to ensure independent, thorough, and transparent investigation following critical incidents involving law enforcement.

So um officer involved shootings, or also be in custody death or other critical uses of force resulting in serious bodily injury or death.

And again, as I mentioned, we have uh these different law enforcement agencies all will have individuals respond, and then um one law enforcement agency will designate as the lead investigator, but it will not be the agency that's employing the officer who was involved in the shooting.

So they go through this process, they uh investigate the facts, they will interview witnesses, they will take photos, they will look at flock cameras, body cameras, all those sorts of things.

Um, but they're just focused on determining what the facts are, what evidence is available.

Um after that occurs, then they will give a presentation of the cert team will give a presentation to my office of those facts and evidence, and then our office takes that under review.

And then once we review all those facts and evidence, and um, you know, my folks will look at everything again with a fresh eye.

We will review the body worn camera, we will listen to the witness interviews so that we are getting a full picture, we're not solely relying on any summaries that are conducted by the cert team.

And then the final decision is whether or not charges are gonna be filed.

So there could be a couple different things going on when we have an officer involved shooting.

Um, first of all, let's say that the individual who is shot at um survives, or maybe in a criminal investigation into whether that individual was involved in some sort of criminal activity, and that individual could be charged with the crime.

So that would be done by the employing agency because that's a crime that occurred within that jurisdiction.

Then there's a cert process.

The sole purpose of the cert process is to determine whether or not charges are going to be filed against that officer who just charged this weapon.

And that's the only that's the only role that we have, but we solely make that decision about whether or not to file charges.

In addition to that, there could be a separate um internal affairs investigation going on, and that will take place by the employing law enforcement agency because it needs to.

It's an internal affairs investigation.