My name is Gino Betts.
I am the director of the Office of Police Accountability.
The primary function of OPA
is to investigate allegations of police misconduct.
We have about 24 people on staff.
We have 11 investigators,
nine of which are sworn SPD officers,
and the other two are civilians.
So I grew up in Chicago, born
and raised on the west side of Chicago.
I worked for COPA,
that's the Chicago
Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
As an attorney,
where I worked on some significant cases involving,
you know,
corruption allegations and things of that nature,
what really sparked
my interest in police
accountability and police oversight
was a combination of both personal experience.
Growing up
as a young black boy on the west side of Chicago,
experiencing unconstitutional of policing.
And then,
you know, I grew up to become a prosecutor
where where I'm treated completely differently
and I'm treated with great deference.
So I really want to raise the awareness of OPA.
I'm not convinced that all Seattleites are aware of
of this service,
that if you have a questionable encounter
with a police officer
and you want that incident to be further investigated,
that we're here to do that.
And they're going to do that
in a timely objective
and thorough manner. And in a fair manner as well.
If we're going to serve the community,
we have to have a direct connection
relationship with the community.
So since I started,
we've been proactively engaging with,
you know,
community events,
you know, partnering with different organizations
just to raise our visibility.
Gaining public confidence is the most important
measure of success there is for me.
And for OPA.
I want OPA to be a household name
here in Seattle eventually.
It's going to take time.
And hopefully we are trending in a positive direction
every year.
We're getting closer to boosting public confidence
and police oversight.