Probe started after Elijah McClain's death finds pattern of racially biased policing, Colorado attorney general says

Colorado's attorney general said Wednesday that a civil rights investigation begun amid outrage over the death of Elijah McClain found that the Aurora Police Department has a pattern of racially biased policing. The investigation by Attorney General Phil Weiser's office, announced in August 2020, was the first of its kind launched under a sweeping police accountability law passed in Colorado the month before amid protests over the killing of George Floyd.

The investigation had begun several weeks earlier but was not revealed until the day McClain's parents filed a lawsuit against Aurora. The lawsuit alleges that the police's treatment of McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, was part of a pattern of racially biased policing that has involved aggression and violence against Black people.

The accountability law made it unlawful for police officers or other employees of government agencies to deprive people of their constitutional rights and gave the attorney general the power to enforce it. Under the law, if the attorney general finds an agency has "a pattern or practice" of violating people's rights, the attorney general must notify the agency of the reasons for that belief and give it 60 days to make changes. If the agency does not make changes, the attorney general can file a lawsuit to force them.