If the city of Denver doesn’t agree to accept full legal liability for Aurora police officers’ actions and pay for all lawsuits that stemmed from the 2020 racial justice protests in Denver, Aurora could end its partnership agreement with its neighboring city.

That’s what a resolution would do, if approved, that Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman plans to introduce at the July 17 City Council meeting. The agreement would not apply to regular police operations or task force participation, Coffman noted. But it would apply to future protests or civil unrest in which Denver asks for assistance and Aurora officers could act under Denver police’s direction.

“We do a lot of great cooperation with Denver in terms of issues relative to crime because criminals don’t quite understand the boundaries between Aurora and Denver,” Coffman told The Post. “And so we certainly will continue to work at that level. That’s just kind of standard operating procedures between the city of Aurora and really all of our surrounding jurisdictions.”

Aurora and other municipalities sent officers to assist with responding to the massive demonstrations in May and June 2020 when thousands of people protested in Denver, demanding changes in policing after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Police repeatedly used excessive force against demonstrators, according to a report from Denver’s police watchdog, but a lack of accurate record-keeping made it difficult to determine which officers or agencies were responsible for the undue violence.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against Denver and its officers related to the use of excessive force during the protests, and Aurora and its officers have also been named in several lawsuits.

In May of this year, Aurora sued Denver, as The Denver Post previously reported, highlighting a political rift between the two cities and their disagreement over state law. Aurora has asked a judge to require Denver to “indemnify” its officers, or “assume all liability resulting from Aurora’s police response to civil unrest in Denver beginning in May of 2020.”

While there’s no formal memorandum of understanding between the two cities over police operations during protests, the two agencies assist one another based on a state statute on mutual aid.

The lawsuit stated that Aurora had an understanding that Denver would accept fully liability for Aurora officers who were acting under Denver police’s direction, “consistent with the parties’ longstanding practice.”

Coffman’s resolution calls for a termination of Aurora’s mutual aid agreement with Denver “until they indemnify Aurora and our officers who came to the aid of Denver in 2020 and that Aurora receives an unequivocal statement, signed by (incoming) Mayor Mike Johnston, that spells out Denver’s obligation to always indemnify our police officers when they call on us for assistance,” he wrote in a social media post.

Denver’s city attorneys have until the end of Wednesday to file their latest response in the lawsuit that they have asked a judge to dismiss, saying that state law requires Denver to indemnify Aurora officers for traditional negligence claims, not civil rights claims by Aurora police during the protests.

“Any other reading of the statutes would have an absurd result,” the lawsuit stated. “If Aurora … could require Denver to bear the liability for Aurora’s constitutional violations, Denver would essentially be liable for Aurora’s police policies and training which Denver could in no way control or even influence.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said that “Aurora is taking an overly broad interpretation of the indemnity provisions in the mutual aid statute.”

“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,” Mike Strott, the mayor’s spokesperson, said.

But Coffman disagrees, hence his introduction of the resolution. He called it an “unfortunate hiccup” between him and Hancock, with whom he said he otherwise had a great working relationship, and he plans to discuss the issue in detail with Johnston after he takes office.

“I just feel like, to me, the issue is very clear,” Coffman said.

In a written statement, a spokesperson for Johnston said that his team is aware of the issue and officials decided the best path is for the court to decide what to do.

“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.

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