“It is important that we recognize this milestone and the men and women chiefly responsible for it,” Aurora Mayer Tom Weisner says in the article. “It is impossible to put a number to the value of what they have achieved, but even in this difficult economy, we could make the sacrificed necessary to reward this extraordinary accomplishment.”

With a population of nearly 200,000, Aurora was murder-free last year for the first time since 1946. The last killing reported in the city was on Dec. 21, 2011, when a 21-year-old woman died in a domestic violence attack, NBC reports.

Police Chief Greg Thomas says that while sweeps targeting the most serious criminal suspects and gang leaders helped, community policing was key, the article says.

Weisner says that the city already has the money to pay the bonuses, which amount to one-tenth of one percent of Aurora’s budget.