Civil Assists

A civil assist (civil standby) requested by a resident when they desire the presence of an officer at a specific location in the city for the purposes of retrieving or dropping off personal belongings.

Civil assists are done within the city of Aurora between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily and should last no longer than 10 to 15 minutes.

• Any requests received outside of the designated hours will require special approval from the District Watch Commander overseeing the destination location in question. If the request is unable to be accommodated, the requestor will receive instruction to call back during the designated hours.

• Please contact the Arapahoe County Civil Department at 720.874.3845 for:

• Civil standby requests expected to last longer than 10 to 15 minutes.

• Any requests to serve court orders.

• The city of Aurora does not facilitate court document process service. 

Restraining Orders

• For any instance where a restraining/protection order is in place between any two parties involved in a civil standby, it is necessary for the requesting party to verify whether the court order includes specific exemptions for the civil standby to take place in any form. The court document(s) advise whether the involved parties are allowed a one-time (or more) civil assist or are allowed to be in contact with each other. APD officers will not assist any person in violating a court order at any time.

Custody Exchanges

• High-conflict child custody situations are stressful for all involved, but are particularly distressing for children. In an effort to support a more calm environment for children in these situations, APD will not provide civil standby for the purposes of custodial exchange. However, the APD Headquarters, District 1 and District 3 stations in Aurora are equipped with a camera-monitored exchange point in their respective parking lots. Parents are invited and encouraged to meet in these designated parking spaces to safely exchange their children in a neutral, monitored environment where it is common to see officers traveling to and from the building around the clock.

• If attempts at peaceful child exchange are unsuccessful, parents are encouraged to consult with their own attorney, case worker, spiritual advisor, health care provider or other trusted resource to explore options for enacting a supervised child exchange process. Supervised child exchange is a method of transferring custodial time from one parent to the other in a way that prevents interaction or conflict between the parents during the transfer. In a supervised exchange, a neutral third party is present to facilitate the exchange without the parents seeing one another or interacting. Supervised exchanges protect parents from each other and prevent the child from witnessing conflict. While Aurora911 is never able to provide you advice on your legal matters, we strongly believe our children are our greatest resource who always deserve to be (and feel) safe.