DENVER (CBSMiami/AP) — Daniel Oates, the former Miami Beach Police chief who retired in 2019, has been rehired as the top cop of another former police department in Aurora Colorado.
Oates led the police department in the Denver suburb of Aurora when a gunman killed 12 people in a movie theater a decade ago.
Now he is returning to temporarily lead the embattled department following the firing of its last chief.
The city, Colorado’s third-largest, announced Wednesday that Daniel Oates will serve as interim chief and help in the selection of the next police chief. He served as police chief in Aurora from 2005 to 2014 before retiring as police chief in Miami Beach.
When he left South Florida, he said he planned “to end his career here with the Miami Beach Police Department,” and called the officers “superheroes.”
Aurora City manager Jim Twombly said he hired Oates “because he has established trust within our community and many of our officers.”
Earlier this month Twombly fired Police Chief Vanessa Wilson, who faced scrutiny over the death of Elijah McClain, a case that received widespread attention in the wake of protests of racial injustice and police brutality. McClain died after being stopped by police, put in a chokehold, and injected with the powerful sedative ketamine in 2019. Three police officers and two paramedics were indicted in McClain’s death last year.
Oates has also served as police chief in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a deputy chief in the New York Police Department.
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