Austin's Office of Police Oversight debuts first-ever open house

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- On Saturday, the Austin Office of Police Oversight organized its first-ever open house for the community at the Austin Central Library.

The OPO open house provided attendees with an insight into how citizen complaints and compliments are submitted, reviewed and analyzed, as well as how data, research and feedback are implemented.

The open house began with the Director of Austin's Office of Police Oversight, Gail McCant, speaking to attendees, giving Insight into OPO’s mission, current initiatives, and future goals for oversight in Austin.

“We work to promote transparency and accountability by accepting complaints from community members and compliments from community members,” McCant said. “We want the community to know that they have a place that they can come to when you are having a great interaction with the officer, or when it's not so great.”

The event had various booths, ranging from informative ones detailing what occurs after an investigation to giveaways and handouts for the community.

“The community response has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Director of the Office of Police Oversight, Gail McCant.

Attendee Lily Ortiz said she thought the event was rare and a privilege for Austinites.

“I think for us, it’s huge, and I think that what they're doing in the rate that they're going at is wonderful,” Ortiz said. “Not many people, or not many cities, do things like this, or have things like this, or vote for things like this – especially in the state of Texas.”

For more information, visit Austintexas.gov