He once patrolled the tough precincts of New York — but it’s in a normally safe Denver suburb that the former high-ranking NYPD cop is probing one of the worst crimes the country has ever seen.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates’ stellar career in the Big Apple began with midnight shifts in gritty city neighborhoods.
“He was probably one of the smartest guys in the Police Department during his tenure,” retired NYPD Lt. Thomas Tuffey said of Oates, who was his supervisor in the legal department.
Oates graduated from New York Law School while working as a beat cop.
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A New Jersey native, Oates attended Bucknell University, where he was editor of the newspaper before working as a reporter for The Press newspaper in Atlantic City, NJ.
He joined the NYPD after hearing a radio advertisement, and started as a street cop in 1980.
But Oates’ brains quickly sent him up the totem pole — catching the eye of current Police Commissioner Ray Kelly during his first term under Mayor David Dinkins.
When he retired in 2001, he was executive-deputy chief in the Brooklyn South command.
Additional reporting by Jamie Schram