Shannon Yohani, director of the Office of Accountability and Transparency, told the Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee on Jan. 7 that OAT has expanded its staff and its oversight work.

“We are currently reviewing 159 department administrative investigations and have published 37 reports as of this meeting,” Yohani said, noting OAT grew from nine to 13 staff and recently hired its first attorney to help align the office with state and city law.

The nut of Yohani’s presentation was process and implementation. She said OAT has issued 25 independent recommendations across its reports and that the police department has agreed with 23 of those recommendations. For recommendations already accepted, she said the department has implemented or updated manuals and operations orders in most cases; OAT will begin reviewing investigations that occurred after implementation in late 2026 to assess whether changes produced meaningful improvements.

Yohani outlined OAT’s mediation program, describing two tracks: department‑level mediations that address systemic or policy concerns and voluntary, confidential individual‑officer mediations intended to provide an alternative to formal complaint processes. “VOTE’s mediation director has coordinated and conducted 7 department level community police mediations to date,” she said.

The presentation also covered outreach: Yohani described a youth outreach pilot at South Mountain High School with 24 students and said OAT plans to scale the program to two or three schools per semester and refine the curriculum using student surveys. She highlighted staff certifications earned through the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement and said OAT continues partnering with the Family Advocacy Center to streamline support for people involved in critical incidents.

Vice Mayor O’Brien and other members pressed for details on which schools will host the outreach and on how OAT resolves recommendations the department disagrees with. Yohani said the civilian review board is likely to serve as the tie‑breaker where disagreements persist and that staff now engage department executives earlier in the review process to reduce unresolved recommendations before public release.

Next steps: department responses to OAT’s most recent reports were due Jan. 17, and OAT said the civilian review board will calendar reports roughly 60 days after publication.