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About OPC
The Office of Police Complaints (OPC) and its governing body, the Police Complaints Board (PCB), were created by statute in 1999, and OPC opened to the public on January 8, 2001. The agency is independent of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), the District of Columbia’s 3,800-member police force, and the D.C. Housing Authority Police Department (DCHAPD), the Housing Authority’s 75-member police force, and its mission is to receive, investigate, and resolve police misconduct complaints filed by the public against MPD and DCHAPD officers.
The agency was created by the District to fill the void left by the 1995 abolition of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which was plagued by inadequate funding and staff, resulting in lengthy delays in the processing and resolution of complaints. The District’s new police oversight office was the product of extensive research and careful thought by District officials and advocacy groups. The result was an agency with board members and staff who seek to employ the best practices of citizen oversight of law enforcement, and whose ultimate goal is to provide the public with an independent and impartial forum for the investigation and timely resolution of police misconduct complaints.
More information about the agency is available at the following links:
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