AURORA - The city's main police union wants a criminal investigation of the chief and his bosses, much to the disgust of some officers who are switching to a rival union.

"It's crazy, it's absolutely crazy," Capt. Jack DaLuz said of the latest move by his union, the Aurora Police Association. "I'm so disgusted with what they are doing because it reflects badly on our organization and it reflects badly on them."

Union President Don James says lodging the complaints was a necessary response to recent unforgivable actions within the department.

His union alleges that Chief Daniel Oates, Assistant City Attorney Rob Werking, City Manager Ron Miller and Deputy City Manager Frank Ragan committed crimes when they warned the Civil Service Commission in January not to undermine their authority on a disciplinary matter.

Ragan has said his decision to send the warning letter was only equivalent to a basketball coach giving a referee some grief after a couple of bad calls.

But an independent investigator hired by the city ruled that the letter was meant to improperly influence the Civil Service Commission as it reviewed a disciplinary action taken against a sergeant.

The sergeant wasn't disciplined because the Civil Service Commission said the letter tainted the case.

James and about 30 of the union's 478 members then voted at a sparsely attended meeting Feb. 7 to write the Arapahoe County District Attorney, the FBI, the U.S. attorney and the Aurora mayor and City Council, asking whether the letter amounted to a criminal attempt to influence public officials.

In a separate letter two weeks ago, the union asked the district attorney to investigate two internal affairs investigators for allegedly altering witness testimony in another case.

So far, none of the agencies has agreed to investigate. But DaLuz says the embattled union has achieved its real goal - embarrassing a department it is less and less able to influence.

Relations between the union and the department's top brass soured last fall when the groups campaigned on opposite sides of four ballot measures that would have given Oates more power to hire and fire officers.

Relations have continued to deteriorate, and many frustrated officers have dropped out of the Aurora Police Association and joined the department's other union, the Fraternal Order of Police.

The Fraternal Order of Police does not back the other union's requests for criminal probes.

Detective Keith Booton, a former Aurora Police Association board member, has become one of its latest defectors. In his resignation letter, Booton called the union's investigation requests "completely tasteless and void of any semblance of professionalism, honor or integrity. . . . It is this type of ignorance and arrogance that is killing the APA."

Though membership is flagging, the Aurora Police Association still has almost three times as many members as the Fraternal Order of Police, and will likely remain the main union dealing with management for the foreseeable future.

City Councilwoman Molly Markert called the situation "really sad."

"It feels like hurt feelings," she said. "You can't fix hurt feelings with a lawsuit. I would like for everybody to look within themselves and see where their feelings are hurt."

bargec@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5059