Heather Morris pulled into an Aurora car parking zone not lengthy earlier than Christmas and eyed the snow-covered pavement with suspicion.
The longtime Texan wasn’t positive learn how to stroll by means of the snow. She referred to as out to a different police officer for recommendation.
“He’s like, ‘Hold your stability, don’t lean your weight ahead, take small steps and avoid the shiny stuff,’ ” Morris stated in an interview Tuesday, a day after she took the helm of the Aurora Police Division as its new interim chief.
Morris, 52, is fifth chief in 5 years to steer the 630-member Aurora Police Division. She takes cost because the company navigates by means of a number of challenges: the continued fallout from the dying of Elijah McClain after his wrongful arrest, a discovering by Colorado’s legal professional basic that town’s cops routinely carried out racially biased policing and used extreme pressure, and a subsequent court-mandated reform effort throughout the company.
Throughout her first months on the job, she stated, she is going to deal with working to lower crime additional in Aurora, bettering retention on the pressure, and rebuilding relationships between the police division’s management and its uniformed officers. In the long run, Morris would really like keep in Colorado, and keep on as chief in Aurora.
She’s additionally discovered that she enjoys the snow, she stated.
“I believe that my work will converse for itself,” Morris stated. “And if this neighborhood — if our metropolis supervisor, our council and this division — wished me to be the everlasting chief, I’d contemplate it a privilege to be the chief right here.”
Morris took the reins from former chief Artwork Acevedo, who left after 13 months as interim chief. He later accepted a job in Austin wherein he would oversee that metropolis’s police division, however he backed out Tuesday, based on a statement posted by Acevedo on X, previously referred to as Twitter.
Within the final three years, Morris adopted Acevedo from the police division in Houston to Miami, after which from Miami to Aurora, becoming a member of the Aurora Police Division in March.
When she was chosen as Acevedo’s substitute final week, metropolis leaders stated she represented continuity for town and a continuation of Acevedo’s work. The previous chief stated he had employed Morris as his “wing individual” to observe his again and share his imaginative and prescient for the police division.
For some, that’s an issue. Marc Sears, president of the Aurora Fraternal Order of Police union, stated Morris was not the best chief for Aurora.
“She’s lower from the identical material as Artwork Acevedo,” Sears stated. “… She simply doesn’t have what it takes to be chief in Aurora. I’d love for them to discover a chief who’s a cop’s cop. And I’d wish to see somebody who is available in who’s vested within the Aurora Police Division, desires to be in Colorado, desires to be in Aurora and cares about their cops.”
Morris pushed again on the concept that she and Acevedo had been one and the identical.
“I actually don’t contemplate myself an Artwork 2.0 or an Artwork clone, or something of the kind,” she stated. “I’ve labored with him for a lot of years. Nonetheless, I’m my very own individual, and I’ve my very own fashion — and my fashion is so much totally different from his.”
Sears on Monday famous that Morris had already reached out to the unions to attempt to open higher traces of communication. He stated that had him feeling “optimistic.”
However he’d nonetheless wish to see another person in cost.
“Texas will not be what Colorado wants,” he stated. “Texas will not be what the Aurora Police Division wants.”
Greater than twenty years in Houston
Morris spent 22 years with the Houston Police Division. She rose to the rank of assistant chief, a task she occupied for simply over a 12 months earlier than she retired in 2021.
In Houston, she was referred to as a tough employee who’s sensible, stated retired Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland, who left the pressure in 2016. He famous that Morris didn’t have a lot expertise on the govt stage earlier than she retired.
“She left after 22 years, and he or she solely had a 12 months or in order assistant chief,” he stated, including that many Houston cops keep on the job for nearer to 40 years. “Twenty-two years will not be numerous seniority within the Houston Police Division.”
Morris stated Tuesday she is “100% prepared” to be chief in Aurora. She stated she would lead by soliciting enter from a variety of individuals to find out one of the best path ahead.
“There’s at all times a chunk — some little nugget — that any individual else has that may make a plan higher,” she stated.
Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, labored with Morris there for a time. The 2 of them additionally taught a category on body-worn cameras to each officer on Houston’s pressure, he stated.
“I can let you know that as a commander with the division, she was well-liked. She by no means had points,” he stated. “There are specific commanders you’re at all times getting calls on because the union chief, and he or she was not a kind of.”
Griffith added that his “solely concern” was the period of time Morris spent underneath Acevedo’s command. However he believes she’ll “discover her manner in a short time” and develop her personal distinct management fashion.
“She’s very pragmatic,” he stated. “She is going to sit and pay attention. She listens very properly to the neighborhood. She’ll even be trustworthy with them. She’ll say, ‘Sure, we have to repair this. However there are different issues that y’all have to know are the inherent risks of police work. And officers are going to should do sure issues that you simply all may not like, however that’s the actuality of the state of affairs: They’ve obtained to maintain themselves protected.’ ”
Morris stated she was keen to undergo no matter course of Aurora Metropolis Council members set up for vetting town’s subsequent everlasting chief, together with any outreach to neighborhood members.
A contentious stint in Miami
Her tenure was quick lived in one other management place.
After retiring from the Houston police, Morris adopted Acevedo to the Miami Police Division in mid-2021. There, Acevedo briefly served as chief and Morris as deputy chief. Their monthslong tenures in Miami had been marked by Acevedo’s political clashes with town’s leaders — who in the end fired each Acevedo and Morris.
In October 2021, Manuel Morales, who took over as Miami’s police chief following Acevedo’s ouster, informed metropolis commissioners that Morris had shouted expletives at him and different police leaders throughout a Sept. 29, 2021, assembly after her place was eradicated. He stated Acevedo regarded on, with out intervening.
“We had been confronted by Ms. Morris, (who) was visibly upset — very agitated, really,” Morales stated in the course of the fee assembly, based on a video. “It went right into a barrage of cursing and screaming, shaking her head and waving her finger. … The language was very colourful … so I request you’ll permit me to substitute a few of the language. … She goes, ‘You guys are M.F., feminine canine, feminine physique half, M.F. backstabbers.’ ”
Morris stated Tuesday that Morales’ model of occasions was a “mischaracterization,” however she declined to debate the incident intimately.
As proof of wider issues in metropolis authorities in Miami, she pointed to a latest $63 million judgment in a political retaliation lawsuit in opposition to a metropolis commissioner and the arrest of one other metropolis commissioner on corruption-related fees.
Griffith, the Houston union chief, stated such an outburst struck him as out of character for Morris.
“That doesn’t look like the Heather Morris I do know,” he stated. “She was at all times very mild-mannered, very pragmatic in her statements and cautious about what she would inform folks.”
After leaving the Miami Police Division, Morris in Might 2022 was a finalist for the police chief job in Greenville, Texas, a city of about 30,000 folks, and in December 2022 she was named a finalist for chief in Lakewood, Washington, a metropolis of about 60,000 folks. Aurora has near 400,000 residents.
Acevedo employed her in Aurora as an interim deputy chief of police in March 2023.
Get extra Colorado information by signing up for our each day Your Morning Dozen electronic mail e-newsletter.