Aurora City Council will vote on guidelines for the Aurora Police Department on social media

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]To Aurora now, where city leaders are looking to create a policy for how the Aurora Police Department uses their social media accounts. City Council is set to discuss this issue at tomorrow's meeting. Your reporter in Aurora, Michael Abeyta, is outside of City Hall tonight. And Michael, why is this an important issue for Council?

[00:00:19]Well, Kelly, Mayor Pro Tem Alison Coombs says it's all about making sure that every department in the city is communicating the same message to the public.

[00:00:27]The intent is to ensure a level of professionalism.

[00:00:33]>> At Monday's Aurora City Council meeting, City Council members will vote on a resolution that will put guidelines on what Aurora Police can post on social media. Mayor Pro Tem Alison Coombs says she and Council member Jeanine Horton are proposing the resolution because she thinks APD has gotten away from the cohesive message the city wants to send to residents.

[00:00:50]>> And frankly, there have been a number of instances where um there's been opinion-based commentary on active and pending legislation um at various levels as well as a few times when there's been some unprofessional information language presented within uh posts that APD has put out. AE O'Neil Jones, Professor Emeritus of Journalism and Media Production at Metro State University of Denver, says organizations regulating what their departments post online isn't unusual and in fact is a good communication strategy.

[00:01:25]>> Social media is a platform and it's really not any different, better, less than any other platform it in terms of a communication channel. And so it makes sense that a um that a company or an organization would want to have a consistent message across all platforms.

[00:01:42]But she cautions that especially in emergency situations, adding barriers to getting information out could be dangerous.

[00:01:48]>> that message is something that involves public safety or life-threatening or needs to go out, then let people who you've hired to make that decision make that decision and send that message out.

[00:01:59]We reached out to APD to get their response to resolution and how it might affect them, but they don't want to comment on it yet. Coons says she doesn't think this will hamper APD's ability to keep the city safe and informed.

[00:02:09]>> Everything that's included there has the ability for folks to say what they need to say. They just need to work through the city manager, um who already is, you know, the official authority ahead of the police department and communications.

[00:02:32]City Council will vote on that resolution on at Monday night's meeting.

[00:02:35]In Aurora, Michael Abeyta covering Colorado First. Michael, thank you.