“It deeply concerns me that we’ve put a retired police officer in charge of taking complaints from the community about police,” Commissioner Rebecca Bernhardt told staff from Austin’s Office of Police Oversight (OPO) during a heated Public Safety Commission meeting this month.
The OPO was scheduled to present an overdue annual report for 2023 (which has been a source of tension for the commission in the past) during the meeting. However, most of this presentation was postponed as appointees voiced other frustrations with the office, which investigates civilian reports about police interactions and makes policy recommendations.
Commissioners were particularly dissatisfied with the OPO’s complaint management process. Bernhardt told Complaint Supervisor Kevin Masters that she had looked him up on LinkedIn. After Masters confirmed that he had spent 27 years with the Kansas City Police Department, Bernhardt expressed her discomfort with placing someone with nearly three decades in law enforcement at the helm of civilian complaints…