New study to consider staffing levels at Aurora Police Department
The Aurora City Council on Tuesday night approved an agreement with Matrix Consulting Group to complete the Aurora Police Department Staffing and Strategic Planning Study at a price of around $134,000 plus a 5% contingency.
The resolution was passed as a part of the meeting's consent agenda, which is typically used for routine or non-controversial items that are all approved with one vote and without discussion instead of needing to vote on and talk about each individual item.
The item was discussed at a meeting of the Aurora City Council's Finance Committee on Jan. 30, where Aurora Chief Management Officer Alex Alexandrou told committee members that the planning study would be the first of its kind in the department's history.
The Aurora Police Department has been looking at its own staffing needs for the past couple years, and through formal and informal surveys, police officials have heard by 'overwhelming feedback' that people want more police officers and more officers in neighborhoods, according to Aurora Police Lt. Bill Rowley.
While police departments are recommended to determine staffing levels based on their city's population, the Aurora Police Department wants the Staffing and Strategic Planning Study to use a more 'strategic, analytical and community-level approach to Aurora's needs,' according to a staff report included with Tuesday's City Council meeting agenda.
Matrix Consulting Group will do a 'multitask analysis' of the Aurora Police Department to figure out how many employees the Aurora Police Department should have as well as the most efficient and impactful way to use those employees, Rowley told the Finance Committee on Jan. 30.
The multitask approach will begin with a look at the current state of the Aurora Police Department and the city itself, according to Rowley. He said that, during this stage, Matrix Consulting will gather input from city leaders and others to get a 'holistic' view of the city and its public safety needs, particularly as they relate to the police department.
The company will also look for community and employee input through surveys and community meetings before putting all this initial information together into an overview of the Aurora Police Department, Rowley said.
From there, Matrix Consulting will compare the Aurora Police Department to nearby law enforcement agencies and to nationally-recognized best practices, he said.
The survey will also take a look at Aurora Police Department employees' workloads, which along with the department's current staffing levels will show how many employees the department actually needs rather than just relying on city population data, according to Rowley. He said this analysis will also include what time of day and what days of the week staffing needs are the greatest, among other things.
The Aurora Police Department currently splits its efforts among different beats, which similar to Aurora City Council wards divide up the city based on geography and police calls, and these will also be considered under the study to see if changes need to be made, Rowley said.
The study will look beyond the department's current needs to also consider what will happen if the city's population grows to 250,000 when the city's southeast, southwest and far west sides are all built out, according to Alexandrou.
'We really want to make this as robust and predictive for us as possible,' he said.
The study should take around five months to complete and will be available to both the Aurora City Council and others in the community, Rowley said.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
5 days ago
- CBS News
Colorado neighborhood corridor is changing without losing culture
Aurora city leaders are pushing forward with plans to breathe new life into the East Colfax corridor, while keeping longtime residents and business owners at the table. Aurora City Council voted to move forward with creating a downtown development authority (DDA) for the East Colfax Avenue corridor. The proposal will go before voters in November, and, if approved, the DDA would provide funding for infrastructure, business support and community improvements. Aaron Vega, project manager for Aurora's library and cultural services, says the work already underway reflects a different approach than what some big cities have taken. "Economic development is scary when you're talking about neighborhoods where folks have had their businesses here for a long time," Vega said. "We've learned lessons from other places on how to do it correctly and make sure a lot of people get a seat at the table." Vega lives just blocks from East Colfax and calls the district the beating heart of Aurora. He says its diversity, art scene and food culture make it unique, and worth protecting as change comes. One major anchor is The People's Building, an arts hub the city transformed from an abandoned furniture store into a small theater and gallery space for local artists. There's currently work on display by artist, Tony Nguyen. The district also supports small businesses like Bahn & Butter and Manos Sagrados, which was recently awarded a city grant for its mission supporting BIPOC, femme, queer, and disabled artists. "There's a really strong community here whether it's food and beverage or arts and culture," Vega said. "We're changing the narrative about East Colfax by showing the incredible things already happening here." The neighborhood is also home to venues like the Aurora Fox Arts Center and MLK Library. The library is undergoing a $2.5 million renovation to double its space, expand youth areas, and add a new maker space for sewing, 3D printing and other creative tools. Ginger White Brunetti, Aurora's director of library and cultural services, says the MLK Library is more than just a place to check out books. "It's a place where you can search for and apply for a job, get help with your resume, or take part in programs that make people feel like they belong," Brunetti said. "Libraries are really the backbone of a community." The renovations, funded in part by federal dollars, will also support entrepreneurship by giving residents access to equipment that could launch small businesses. "We want families to feel safe here, to bring their kids, read a book, take a program, and feel like this is their library," Brunetti said. Until voters head to the polls, city leaders are asking residents to stay engaged, share their ideas and take part in shaping the future of one of Aurora's most storied corridors. Vega believes this is the first time in years in the district that everyone is really marching in step, including artists, business owners and city planners. Strategic plans for the library system, the arts district recertification and the DDA are all moving forward at once. "It feels like everything now is starting to point in the same direction," Vega said. "Nothing good happens fast, but, if we keep investing in the people and culture that make East Colfax special, we can make it better without losing what makes it unique."
Chicago Tribune
08-08-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Aurora considers renewing ShotSpotter service for three years
Aurora is considering renewing its ShotSpotter service, which detects gunfire within a certain area, for the next three years. The service by SoundThinking, Inc., has been used in Aurora since it was first approved by the Aurora City Council in 2022. Aurora Deputy Police Chief Steve Stemmet recently told the Aurora City Council's Committee of the Whole that the system has proven itself over the past three years. 'With the almost immediate notification of gunfire and the exact location where it occurred, we are able to significantly decrease our response time to these events,' he said at the meeting. The three-year service agreement, which would cost the city $140,000 per year for a total cost of $420,000, now goes before the Aurora City Council at its meeting on Tuesday for final approval. The item was placed on the meeting's consent agenda, which is typically used for routine or non-controversial items that are all approved with one vote, often without discussion. Roughly two square miles of Aurora is covered by ShotSpotter, Stemmet told the Committee of the Whole, but the coverage areas are not exactly divided into square miles. Instead, he said the areas have jagged borders, allowing the service to cover certain neighborhoods or other areas that historically have more gunfire while leaving out those that have not. While the Aurora Police Department does not publicly release where its coverage areas are, according to Stemmet, he did say that around 40% of all confirmed shootings since 2022 have taken place within those two square miles, which represents just 4% of the city's total land. 'I think that represents that we incorporated the ShotSpotter technology in the correct area based on our own research of decades of shooting incidents,' he said. Within the coverage areas, ShotSpotter uses AI to detect any gunfire of .25 caliber or higher and then triangulates its location using sensors set up throughout the area, Stemmet said. Within 60 seconds, the sound is sent to an incident review center, where people review the audio then send the information to dispatchers and directly to officers' smartphones and squad car laptops, which allows police to respond 'almost immediately,' he said. When sent the information, police officers are able to see how many shots were fired and a map of the shooting's location within an 82-foot radius so they can look for evidence of the shooting, like shell casings or a discarded firearm, along with victims or suspects, according to Stemmet. Officers can also listen to the audio themselves so they can determine what type of gunfire had taken place, which may change response and tactics, he said. Multiple instances of gunfire can also be shown on the map together, which may show officers that a shootout was happening or show the direction that a shooter was traveling in while shooting, such as in a drive-by situation, which can help locate suspects, Stemmet said. Using the ShotSpotter service, Aurora police have made 25 arrests, seized 22 firearms and recovered 749 shell casings from shootings, according to Stemmet. He said the recovered firearms and shell casings can be put into forensic databases so they can be linked to other shootings and suspects. Outside of the coverage area, when the Aurora Police Department gets calls about shots fired, people report they heard gunfire or maybe something that sounds similar then give a general area that could span several blocks, Stemmet said. Sometimes multiple people call in and report different areas, he said, which may further broaden the crime scene even more. 'This obviously makes it almost impossible for officers to locate anything, unless we have a victim calling to report damaged property or injuries,' he said. 'And that's if we get a call at all.' ShotSpotter has shown over the past three years that nearly half of all shooting instances within the coverage areas go unreported, Stemmet said. The Aurora Police Department is exploring options to possibly expand the service another square mile sometime in the future, according to Stemmet. He said that research has already been done on where exactly that extra square mile would cover. According to a staff report about the proposed three-year extension, Soundthinking is the only provider of ShotSpotter and 'the only company that has such a proprietary product,' and so the item was not competitively bid. ShotSpotter's use in other communities has been controversial, including in Chicago, where current Mayor Brandon Johnson campaigned against and later ended the city's contract for the technology over criticisms of its cost and effectiveness despite a Chicago City Council vote to keep it, according to reporting from the Chicago Tribune. The Associated Press in 2021 investigated how the technology landed a Chicago grandfather in jail after it was used as evidence to charge him with murder, with a judge later dismissing the case due to insufficient evidence. Plus, the MacArthur Justice Center has sued Chicago over its use of ShotSpotter, with the organization's webpage dedicated to information about the lawsuit questioning the system's accuracy, especially in cases that led to arrests or other police actions, and saying that it disproportionately covered areas with predominantly Black and Latino residents. When asked by Ald. Keith Larson, at-large, at the recent Aurora City Council Committee of the Whole meeting about false-positive reports, Stemmet said ShotSpotter does occasionally pick up fireworks, cars backfiring or even nail guns being used, though those reports are 'few and far between.' Police would rather respond to something that is not gunfire instead of missing gunfire when it does happen because it isn't reported, he said. Plus, people also call 911 to mistakenly report gunfire when they hear similar sounds, he said, but ShotSpotter allows police to clear out those reports in half the time or less as compared to a typical 911 call because the system gives a specific location where it believes the incident happened.
Chicago Tribune
02-08-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Aurora considers new $4 million public safety dispatch, records software
The city of Aurora is considering buying new dispatch and records management software for its public safety departments for just over $4 million. Through the proposed five-year contract with Mark43, Inc. of New York, Aurora would be replacing its Computer Aided Dispatch system used by both the fire and police departments as well as its Records Management System used just by the police. The $4.02 million price tag includes replacements for both systems as well as any work needed to interface the new software with others the city has. That's according to Aurora Police Cmdr. Bryan Handell, who presented the proposal to the Aurora City Council's Information and Technology Committee late last month. The proposal was unanimously recommended for approval by the committee, so now it is set to go before the Committee of the Whole on Tuesday. During his presentation, Handell called the software 'probably the most vital system for public safety.' The Computer Aided Dispatch system, also called CAD, is used to dispatch and track calls for service not only for Aurora's police and fire departments but also for the North Aurora Police Department and the Fox Valley Park District Police Department, according to Handell's presentation. He said that police officers and firefighters use a mobile version to get those calls for service plus see additional information such as notes taken by the dispatcher and location data. The other part of the software, the Records Management System, or RMS, is just for the police department, Handell said. The police and fire departments' records systems need to be kept separate, he said, because they each contain different types of sensitive information. Aurora's current CAD and police RMS systems are from Hexagon, but that software is at the end of its life and will no longer be supported in the near future because the company is looking for its customers to buy its latest software instead, according to Handell. Plus, he said many of the features promised in the initial contract with Hexagon were never provided or did not work to the city's standards. A survey of police employees also showed that nearly 80% of those who responded were 'very or somewhat dissatisfied' with the system, over 85% wanted the department to look at other options and over 30% could not find one thing they liked about the current system, Handell's presentation showed. 'Officers have to use this daily for responding to calls, writing reports, and it's not something that they enjoy using,' he said. 'It's not making their job easier.' Over the past 10 years of using the software, the city has spent around $8 million on it, which includes a $5 million initial purchase price, according to Handell. Since the city would have to buy new software even if it stayed with Hexagon, and since 'we're already unhappy' with that company, 'why would we re-sign with them?' Handell asked. Instead, 'let's see what the market has to offer,' he said. The city asked for proposals for new CAD and RMS systems in 2024, and 10 companies responded — but not Hexagon, according to Handell. He said those 10 companies were eventually narrowed down to just two options through multiple rounds of demos, and using Mark43 for both CAD and RMS stood out as both the better and least-expensive option. In addition to its 'significantly-lower price' as compared to the other option, Mark43's offerings had a modern, user-friendly design and a seamless integration between CAD and RMS, which may have been more difficult with the other option since it would involve buying the CAD and RMS systems from two different companies, Handell said. Plus, with just one vendor instead of two, updates and maintenance to the software would be easier, not causing potential integration issues like if the two systems were from different companies, he said. Unlike Hexagon, Mark43 is focused just on public safety software, according to Handell. Other departments across the country are using the company, too, including in places like Washington, D.C., and Seattle, Washington, his presentation showed. The proposed five-year contract with Mark43 for its software is fully funded, he said, through budgeted IT funds as well as 911 surcharge funds and police asset forfeiture funds. If the proposal passes through the Committee of the Whole on Tuesday, it will then go before the Aurora City Council for final approval. The next City Council meeting is on Aug. 12. If the contract is approved, then starts the 'lengthy process' of converting data and implementing the new software, according to a staff report about the proposal included with the upcoming Committee of the Whole agenda on the city's website. While that integration process is going on, public safety staff still need to use the current software, the report said. So, later this year staff are expected to ask City Council to extend the city's maintenance and licensing agreement with Hexagon.
