Former Aurora police chief Dan Oates talks about struggles to get rid of bad cops

[Amy-Strange]

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Former Aurora police chief Dan Oates talks about struggles to get rid of bad cops

Former Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates wrote about the challenges of expelling bad cops from the force Friday in The Washington Post.

Oates led police departments in Ann Arbor, Mich., Aurora and Miami Beach. He wrote about the challenges of police chiefs against police unions and state laws that stack the deck in favor of crooked cops.

Not so much in Colorado, he wrote.

"In Colorado, there was no such guarantee — and the cultural difference in the departments I oversaw was striking," Oates wrote. "In Florida, trustworthiness was a challenge. In Colorado, officers generally did not lie to internal affairs — and, what’s more, they helped keep one another honest.

"But that didn’t mean it was easy to get rid of underperforming cops. In nearly nine years as chief in Aurora, Colo., I had 16 cops out of 650 whom I felt should be fired. Four I actually did fire. The Civil Service Commission promptly reversed me on three of them. So with the other 12 cops, I bent over backward to negotiate their departures with creative severance packages. I succeeded in getting them out — with deals that protected the city from litigation — but these agreements also allowed the cops to get jobs elsewhere if they could."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/former-aurora-police-chief-dan-oates-talks-about-struggles-to-get-rid-of-bad-cops/ar-BB15vS7q?ocid=msedgntp

READ HIS ENTIRE ESSAY HERE:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/12/i-used-be-police-chief-this-is-why-its-so-hard-fire-bad-cops/
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[LizBeth]

1. An interesting read. I see it night and day with the police here in Oregon as opposed to a red state

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Kind of the Norm me thinks.

As a POST Board Member mentioned when I asked about getting rid of Bad Actors in our Local PD,his answer did not surprise,cut them a Monetary Deal and have the Local County Judge seal the case. But,as he said,these People will end up in Arizona and New Mexico if they are bi-Lingual. So end up with Border Patrol.

[live love laugh]

3. Unions are a double edged sword and this is a byproduct. nt