Aurora police have launched a new website aimed at connecting officers with residents and increasing transparency with crime statistics and data.
The website, found at https://police-transparency-cityofaurora.hub.arcgis.com, features a “transparency hub” with a crime summary dashboard that looks at the rates of various crimes over the last three years in the city.
For instance, the hub shows murders have decreased in Aurora, from 11 murders in 2020, six in 2021 and only two to date in 2022. Meanwhile, criminal sexual assault numbers increased in 2021, with 68 assaults in 2020 and 133 assaults in 2021. There have been 60 criminal sexual assaults so far in 2022, according to the numbers.
The data will be updated every two weeks, according to the website, which also lists traffic offense statistics.
Residents can also look up the department’s calls for service and see where police have been dispatched within the last day, week and month. Residents can view their specific neighborhood and see any calls police responded to in that area and view the category of the call.
“A positive relationship between the community and its police department, fostered by trust and confidence, is essential to law enforcement,” Aurora Police Chief Keith Cross said in a statement.
The website also shows employment opportunities and features a dashboard on the diversity within the department. Cross said it was one of his goals to increase diversity within APD.
Currently, around 67.4% of officers are white, 6.3% are Black and 23.9% are Latinx, data shows. Around 86% are male and 14% are female.
Residents are also able to look at ward maps and see who the community-oriented policing officer is for their neighborhood and access their contact information.
There is also a non-emergency community crime area where people can submit a location and problem they’d like police to address.
The department also announced launching a My90 Public Surveying tool, which uses a third-party data and survey collection tool that collects anonymous feedback from the community and officers.
