Art Acevedo, a nationally recognized law enforcement expert who has more than 35 years of law enforcement experience and who served as police chief in Austin, Texas, Houston and most recently Miami, will lead the Aurora Police Department on an interim basis as the city resets the national recruitment process for a permanent chief. Current Interim Police Chief Daniel J. Oates will return to his home and family in Florida upon Acevedo’s arrival and a successful transition in early December.
“Chief Acevedo has been a fixture in the national law enforcement community for years and has been vocal about needed and measured improvements in policing and public safety across the country. We are honored that he reached out to us, eager to assist us with the ongoing public safety changes we have been implementing,” said Aurora City Manager Jim Twombly. “I am extremely grateful for Interim Chief Oates. We wish he could stay but knew his time with us would be brief. He came out of retirement and returned to Aurora this summer. In that short time, he stabilized APD and brought a renewed focus to crime reduction, community engagement and internal leadership in line with the consent decree. He built upon the successful work he accomplished as the chief in Aurora for nearly a decade until his departure in 2014.”
“It has been an honor and privilege to serve Aurora again,” Oates said. “I am proud of how far the department has come during my six months here, and I am confident that our dedicated police officers will build upon that progress under the steady leadership of Chief Acevedo. His arrival is a win for the department and the community.”
Acevedo currently operates the Acevedo Leadership Advantage, a law enforcement consultancy, and periodically serves as a law enforcement analyst for national news organizations. He rose to national prominence by, in part, serving on the front lines as the city of Houston responded to the catastrophic effects of Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
“Aurora reminds me of Houston. Both cities are incomparably diverse and culturally rich,” Acevedo said. “As a bilingual Cuban American born in Cuba and raised in the U.S., I am intimately familiar with the challenges facing diverse communities like Aurora, and I applaud the city’s simultaneous efforts to tackle crime and implement public safety changes to better reflect the people it serves. I look forward to building upon Chief Oates’s work to ensure the department implements the consent decree, strengthens public trust, and enhances the safety of this culturally rich city.”
Acevedo grew up in California and earned his Bachelor of Science degree, with honors, in Public Administration from the University of La Verne in California. He spent a combined 14 years as a police chief in Texas – first in Austin, then in Houston. He previously spent 21 years with the California Highway Patrol (CHP), including two years as chief of one of the agency’s eight divisions. He began his law enforcement career as a patrol officer with CHP in East Los Angeles, California, in 1986. Acevedo is well known among his law enforcement peers as a progressive and innovative leader. He has served as president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association and is a lifetime member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
“I welcome Chief Acevedo’s depth of experience and track record of championing national best practices in policing,” Twombly said. “We will harness his expertise as we reevaluate our national police chief search well into 2023. We recognize that our first attempt to name a permanent chief met resistance for a variety of reasons in September. Consequently, and despite the best efforts of the city management team and the city’s seasoned police executive recruitment firm through our current process, we have been increasingly challenged in recruiting another pool of qualified police chief applicants. I am confident that Chief Acevedo will bring the leadership and savvy to serve our community, dedicated police officers and city staff equitably.”