ByLea Skene Globe Staff,Updated January 18, 2026, 11:38 a.m.
Amid growing friction between the Boston Police Department and the civilian agency meant to oversee it, community leaders expressed frustration during a public forum this weekend.
Five years after the 2020 racial justice protests spurred local action, some feel Boston doesn’t have much to show for those efforts — especially when it comes to the city’s Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, or OPAT, the civilian oversight agency created in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
“We have to put this back on the front burner. Because police reform, at one point, was the hot-button issue. And now things have kind of waned,” said Jamarhl Crawford, a local activist who served on the city’s police reform task force in 2020 and organized the forum.
He said OPAT is lagging behind where it should be, largely because Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox has refused to take the agency seriously.
Much of the discussion focused on the contentious relationship between the Boston Police Department and OPAT. The office itself has struggled to get off the ground, although its leaders say they’re turning a corner and finally asserting their authority.
“Movements and changes don’t happen overnight,” said OPAT Executive Director Evandro Carvalho, a former prosecutor who took over leadership of the beleaguered office in 2024.
In response to critics who challenged whether OPAT will ever fulfill its mission, he said progress is absolutely underway as the agency seeks to assert its authority and hold the police accountable.
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