Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates gives a press conference (AP)

The police chief of the Colorado town rocked by a massacre during a "Dark Knight Rises" screening is a NJ native who spent 21 years with the NYPD. Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates started as a beat cop on the Upper East Side in 1980 before leaving the force in 2001. A retired NYPD lieutenant who supervised him tells the Post, "He was probably one of the smartest guys in the Police Department during his tenure."

Oates, who graduated from New York Law School and is licensed to practice law in NY, NJ and Colorado, had a storied career: The Daily News reports, that he "finished his 21-year career with the NYPD in 2001 as the commanding officer of the department’s Intelligence Division" and had "previously served as the second-in-command of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South and commanding officer of the NYPD’s legal bureau."

Before heading to Aurora in 2005, Oates was the police chief in Ann Arbor. According to his bio on LIU Riverhead's Homeland Security Management Institute website, "In his first four years in office, Chief Oates has overseen a 30-percent reduction in major index crime in Aurora and introduced new initiatives to apprehend dangerous fugitives and increase investigative support for victims of sexual assault and gun violence." Today, Oates and his police officers are continuing to investigate the tragic shootings and are attempting to defuse apparent explosives in the suspect's apartment.