Internal affairs moves back to OPD station

After sitting across the street on the fifth floor of the city’s municipal plaza, the Odessa Police Department’s internal affairs division moved back into the police station in a spot that police chief Tim Burton said would be more reachable to the public.

The desks, tables, cabinets and a coffee maker were all set up by Wednesday. Burton and Lt. David Tavarez said the offices were already open for people who want to get a hold of someone if they wish to complain about the way they’ve been treated by one of its officers.

Burton said the police department was out of room on its second floor, where the offices originally were before it moved to the municipal building about six months ago. Though the crowding spurred the move, Burton thought its new location had its advantages.

“It makes it a little easier and frankly a little less intimidating,” Burton said. “It serves to be a lot more accessible.”

Tavarez said he didn’t see his division’s accessibility as a sticking point for people while they were based in the municipal plaza or the police station’s second floor, though with the short amount of time at the plaza he wasn’t sure he was there long enough for it to become an issue. Still, he though the move placed his division closer to the rest of the department as well as the public at large, and he saw that as an improvement.

“We’re accessible to the public now, and to our people,” he said.

While handling complaints from the public against the department’s officers, internal affairs is also supposed to coordinate the department’s budgeting process and oversee promotional testing for the officers.