One Month Later, Aurora Police-Complaint Portal Remains Offline

AURORA, IL — More than a month after Aurora city and police officials announced they would soon publish an online portal for residents to view complaints against officers, the portal is still offline.

Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman said June 11 that the city would launch the portal within two weeks, in response to demonstrations throughout the nation — including a large protest May 31 in downtown Aurora — after George Floyd was killed while being arrested by a Minneapolis police officer.

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The portal is expected to show information about complaints against Aurora police officers and the results of internal investigations conducted by the department’s Office of Professional Standards. Previously, the Aurora Police Department only released information about OPS investigations through Freedom of Information Act requests.

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Residents and activists have demonstrated outside the Aurora Police Department on multiple occasions since Floyd’s killing on May 25. A large protest May 31 started at the police headquarters before marching to the Chicago Premium Outlets and then downtown.

Activists organized another protest several days later after an Aurora resident was arrested at his home and charged with two misdemeanors before Mayor Richard Irvin and Ziman dropped the charges against him the next morning.

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In response to those protests and smaller demonstrations throughout the city at the beginning of June, Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin released a four-point CHANGE Reform Initiative, including reviews of the Aurora Police Department's use-of-force and training policies.

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Aurora officials are hosting 10 sessions to work with 300 residents on reforming the Aurora Police Department’s training and use-of-force policies. The first of those sessions started last week, and the last is scheduled for July 30.

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Irvin also said the city is working to equip all officers with body cameras, which Ziman has said the department supports.

Paris Lewbel, a spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department, said officials are working through technology issues and trying to add context to the complaints before launching the online portal, according to a report by the Aurora Beacon-News.

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“From our philosophy, if you just dump data, we want to make sure people are able to understand its context before they get lost in the information or have more questions,” Lewbel told the Beacon-News.