Aurora pastor gets assigned Community Advisory

local pastor (Photo by Ben White on Unsplash)

A pastor from Aurora, Colorado, a close city to Denver, will soon lead the upcoming town hall meeting between risk management firm, IntegrAssure, and the local politicians in Colorado. Reid Hettich, the lead pastor at Mosaic Church of Aurora, is recently assigned as one of the Community Advisory Council leaders.

Community Advisory Council Leader, Pastor

On the official website of IntegrAssure, Pastor Hettich was announced as one of the company’s three council co-chairs of the Community Advisory Council. He will be joined by Omar Montgomery, a director of Equity, Culture, and Community Engagement for Cherry Creek School District, and Jeanette Rodriguez, a pastor and an educator at Jefferson County Schools.

All three council leaders will reportedly head the upcoming town hall meeting at Beck Recreation Center in Aurora, Colorado.

According to a report from Sentinel Colorado, the first town hall meeting of the group, to be joined by IntegrAssure and the public, will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 9, at 6:30 p.m. All are reportedly invited to participate and listen to the meeting, which is accessible online and on television.

Those who have questions about the gathering can reportedly send their inquiries to connect@auroramonitor.org.

As per the report, the Community Advisory Council group was a newly-formed organization by the IntegrAssure firm. The company’s website said the council group was just created in March.

Aside from the council leaders, the agency also comprises authorities in various agencies, from church, police, and community heads. The website press release explains that the Community Advisory Council aims to promote diversity between the community and the assessment firm.

It was also explained that the group is responsible for providing ‘community perspectives and insights’ that would be beneficial for IntegrAssure’s research in Aurora.

IntegrAssure Releases Research About Aurora Police Department

According to the Sentinel Colorado report, IntegrAssure released its first report about the Aurora police department on Monday, Aug. 1. The independent monitoring agency is reportedly responsible for assessing the policies and safety reforms of the police department.

So far, the first report of IntegrAssure had commendations but also showcased flaws in the police agency.

“During this initial period, the City of Aurora and its constituent agencies have cooperated fully with the Monitor and have begun working on, and in some cases have made great strides toward, the implementation of the mandated reforms,” IntegrAssure wrote in its report.

On the other hand, the firm reportedly identified that the Aurora police’s Force Review Board has lapses in conducting investigations involving their officers— which is deemed as the downside of the agency.

As explained, the assessment report was created due to the 2019 controversy that the Aurora police faced. At the time, a 23-year-old Black man named Elijah McClain was illegally arrested by the local police in Colorado, as per the New York Times report.

Three policemen who arrested the young man and two paramedics were indicted in court for charges involving manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Since then, Colorado’s focus on police reform has become a serious matter.