AURORA, Colo. — The city of Aurora voted Monday night to break up with Denver, ending its mutual aid agreement with Denver's police department.
Aurora's city council voted to suspend its agreement with DPD Monday as they continue to argue over which municipality should pay for lawsuits related to policing at the 2020 protests in Denver.
Aurora said Denver police asked for help during the protests, and now Aurora officers are named in four civil lawsuits related to how police handled the crowds.
Aurora already filed suit against the City of Denver because of this dispute, and earlier this month, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman proposed a break in the broader police mutual aid deal.
He said Denver should pay to defend those Aurora police officers or settle the lawsuits.
At Monday night's meeting, several councilmembers asked Coffman to put the separation on hold and try to reach out to Denver's newly-inaugurated mayor, Mike Johnston. Coffman wasn't interested and moved the resolution forward.
Johnston's office said last week that they are aware of the disagreement and that the cities have asked a court to decide who should foot the bill.
"As we await the court’s decision, I look forward to working with Mayor Coffman and the City of Aurora to help ensure a safe and vibrant metro area," Johnston said in a statement to 9NEWS last week.
"If you don't believe that our officers ought to be defended when they're called upon in Denver to go into Denver under the direction of Denver, and that our taxpayers are going to have to make up what could be an enormous bill if our officers aren't indemnified by the 2020 incident, I mean, that's incredible," Coffman said at Monday's city council meeting.
Coffman previously said he believes Denver should pay to defend the officers or settle the lawsuits for actions that happened while those officers were under Denver Police command.
"I think they know what their responsibilities are. I know what their responsibilities are, and they need to live up to their responsibilities," he said.
Previously, a spokesperson for former Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said Hancock and Coffman had a "fundamental disagreement on this issue."
"We believe Aurora is taking an overly broad interpretation of the indemnity provisions in the mutual aid statute," spokesperson Michael Strott said in an email to 9NEWS. "Our legal teams have been in close contact on this question for months and agreed that asking the court – a neutral party – to decide the scope of indemnification was the best approach."
Aurora Police Chief Art Acevedo released a statement after the vote Monday.
“We have a longstanding, close working relationship with the Denver Police Department and diligently work with their leadership team and officers to keep our communities safe every day," Acevedo said in the statement. "That relationship will not change. In the rare instances of large-scale events that lead to formal requests for large-scale mutual aid responses from Aurora officers, we will continue to assess each of them on an individual, case-by-case basis.”
In a statement to 9NEWS Tuesday, a Denver Police spokesperson said "DPD can confirm that the proposal will not affect DPD’s approach to day-to-day operations and investigations of incidents that overlap our jurisdictions."
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