As Aurora officials continue the process of creating a police oversight office, the police monitor of a Texas city similar to Aurora in size, demographics and structure told officials and residents Tuesday night that her office has built a strong relationship with police and been successful in changing police policies.

Bonycle Sokunbi, the Fort Worth Police Department oversight monitor, spoke to a group of Aurora residents and officials Tuesday night, explaining the structure of the city’s oversight office and how the office has been successful.

The most important power Sokunbi’s office has is unfettered access to police information, which allows them to monitor ongoing investigations into police misconduct and make recommendations along the way, she told meeting attendees Tuesday.

Sokunbi came to Aurora on an invitation from city officials, who are seeking to stand up a similar oversight office in Aurora.

Talk of creating an independent oversight body for the Aurora Police Department is not new. Funding for and approval of an oversight office in Aurora were passed in 2021. At the time, Aurora was entering into a consent decree with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, and city officials pushed off the creation of an oversight office so as not to have two simultaneous oversight bodies.

City Manager Jason Batchelor said $330,000 in funding and authorization for two staff members for an oversight office still exist.

The consent decree’s purpose was to implement sweeping changes to policing — notably in the use of force and how officers engage with residents — after the death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain in 2019 while being arrested by three officers.

Aurora agreed to make changes after an investigation by the Attorney General’s Office found patterns of bias and excessive force in policing. The investigation also found a pattern of using the sedative ketamine in violation of the law by the fire department, which has since stopped using the drug but has to comply with related mandates in the consent agreement if it ever resumes use.

Supporters of an oversight office say the consent decree was not enough, and recent deaths of unarmed Black men at the hands of Aurora police show racially biased policing patterns continuing.

For more than a year, protesters have attended every Aurora City Council meeting to demand action from the council following the death of Kilyn Lewis, who was shot by a SWAT officer. A team of officers had sought to arrest him on an attempted murder warrant. Lewis was not armed

The renewed push for the oversight body is being spearheaded by two of the city’s new councilmembers: Amy Wiles and Gianina Horton, who won last year — part of the wave of progressive candidates that toppled the previous conservative-leaning council.

How the city will operate the oversight office, the amount of power oversight officials will have, and what they will or won’t be able to do are still up in the air.

The Fort Worth oversight office was created in February 2020 after several community members were killed by police, Sokunbi said.

Sokunbi’s office, which has unfettered access to police documents, takes police complaints directly, hosts community forums, reviews investigations into officer-involved incidents, and issues public reports. She also helps interview prospective police chiefs and officers, saying it’s “easier to not hire a bad officer than it is to fire them.”

Her office is not able to force the police department to take any kind of action, but can make recommendations.

Sokunbi’s office has built a strong relationship with the police department, and their relationship, built on trust and respect, makes them successful in what they do, she said.

“We work really really well with our police department,” Sokunbi said. “We don’t have a lot of authority, but we’re really effective because we respect each other.”

Sokunbi has not had a single recommendation refused by the department in her time there, she said. Department officials have disagreed with recommendations she’s made, but not refused them.

For the model of oversight Sokunbi’s office uses, unfettered access to police information is “the most important power” they have, she said.

Tuesday’s meeting with Sokunbi was the third public meeting held by city officials to gather input from Aurora residents on the efforts to create an oversight office.