Ask the Aurora City Council to invest in community alternatives to policing.

TAKE ACTION NOW

These names are just a handful of Coloradans of color who have been brutalized or killed by Aurora police officers. The City of Aurora has become Colorado's epicenter for racialized police violence, where police use attack dogs, pepper spray and other cruel measures on Black communities at rates of 148 more times than their white peers.

Alberto Torres Soto

Dwight Crews

The Gilliam Family

Shataeah Kelly

Elijah McClain

Modest police reforms have proven insufficient to change an entrenched culture of systemic, racialized violence by the Aurora Police Department. Police budgets balloon, and communities of color suffer from over policing. We need a different vision of community safety, one that does not include over policing our Black and brown neighbors with excessive force, humiliation or death.

Send a message to Aurora City Council to demand that law enforcement resources be redirected to positive, community-driven solutions that promote the dignity and safety that all Aurora residents deserve.

We must imagine a new form of community safety.

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Your Message

Subject

Dear City Council,

In recent months, the urgency to re-examine the role of police in our communities is at the forefront of issues that demand action by our local elected officials. The policing institutions in our country are deeply entrenched in racism and brutality we cannot allow to continue.

I am dismayed by the racialized police violence in Aurora over recent years and urge that the council take action to invest in alternatives to policing, particularly in response to non-threatening and mental health situations.

Message Body

Since 2003, at least 28 persons of color filed legal action against the Aurora Police Department after suffering from officers' horrifying abuse, including the murder of Elijah McClain. Despite increasing litigation, systemic racial disparities in Aurora police enforcement continue to persist.
 
The city ranks 8th out of the 100 largest cities in the U.S. for police killings per capita, and the Aurora Police Department kills Black people at four times the rate of white people.
 
Aurora taxpayers have spent millions of dollars over recent years to settle police misconduct lawsuits. With increasing city budget cuts of essential programs, we cannot afford to pay for the costly mistakes of the Aurora Police Department without real accountability and restorative justice to communities impacted by officers' actions.
 
Deploying Aurora officers for non-violent, minor complaints is excessive and an inefficient use of city resources. The council must consider new alternatives to policing, such as investing in mobile crisis centers, similar to Denver's STAR program, that offers mental health specialists to address community needs.

I urge that the Aurora City Council take direct action to end the practice of discriminatory policing in the city by decreasing law enforcement budgets and invest in community-driven solutions that will keep our family and neighbors safe and thriving.

Thank you for hearing the calls for action to rebuild build community trust.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]

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Ask the Aurora City Council to invest in community alternatives to policing.

TAKE ACTION NOW

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