“In case anything happens,” Carvalho said.

Such is the sales job facing the 43-year-old Carvalho, a former Suffolk prosecutor and state prosecutor, who last year took charge of the office that was created in the wake of the George Floyd killing to strengthen civilian review of misconduct allegations against Boston police.

In its four-plus years, the office was beset by turnover and vacancies, failed to hold public meetings and produce public reports, had its website go dark for months, and only two of its recommendations for discipline were upheld by Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox — both resulting in oral reprimands.

“I think the general consensus has been that this particular measure of police reform has not lived up to its original intent,” said Jamarhl Crawford, 54, a Roxbury-based activist who served on a task force that recommended the oversight panels.

The office, known as OPAT, was created in December 2020, by the Boston City Council, amid a swell of political momentum for police reform following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The ordinance also created two related entitites, the Civilian Review Board, or CRB, and the Internal Affairs Oversight Panel.

Now nearing his first anniversary as OPAT executive director, Carvalho said the agency has since staffed up, is broadening its community engagement, and is prepared to meet the lofty goals set for it in 2020.

“We’ve had some challenges in terms of fulfilling all the functions, but we’ve been working hard to build capacity to make sure that these gaps are closed,” Carvalho said.

The office has authority to investigate complaints, issue subpoenas, and recommend police changes to the Police Department. The Civilian Review Board decides whether complaints have merit and whether to recommend discipline. And the Internal Affairs Oversight Panel, known as IAOP, reviews investigations conducted by the Police Department’s internal affairs division for fairness and completeness, and hears appeals from people dissatisfied with how the department investigated their complaints.

To date, the Civilian Review Board has received 368 complaints. Of those, the board sustained a total of 31, while 97 are pending. The rest were dismissed, withdrawn, or did not go forward for various reasons.

Moreover, nearly all of the sustained complaints have not resulted in officers receiving discipline. Under the 2020 law, Cox is the ultimate arbiter of police discipline, and so far, he’s rejected eight of the Civilian Review Board’s recommendations for discipline, with another 21 pending.

In one case, Cox refused a recommendation to suspend an office for one day, writing that the officer had already been counseled by his superiors; in another, Cox agreed to orally reprimand an officer who swore at a motorist who had parked illegally and was blocking traffic.

“The Boston Police Department has shared goals with OPAT to ensure we practice constitutional policing while treating people with dignity and respect,” a Boston Police spokesperson said in a statement. “We will continue to work with OPAT’s leadership to further these objectives. We appreciate their willingness to collaborate on ways to better serve the public.”

Carvalho acknowledged Cox has the ultimate decision on discipline, but stressed OPAT and its sub-bodies still have a role to play.

“The fact that we have an agency like this that can force conversations is instrumental to police reform,” Carvalho said at a recent meeting of the Internal Affairs Oversight Panel.

Sophia Hall, deputy litigation director for the Boston-based legal organization Lawyers for Civil Rights, said the agency doesn’t have the public profile it needs to function properly. Clients come to Lawyers for Civil Rights with dozens of complaints about Boston police each year, but few know of OPAT’s existence, Hall said.

“None of those individuals have ever said, ‘I need assistance with filing a complaint with OPAT,‘” she said.

The agency’s original executive director and deputy director both left in 2023, leaving a leadership vacuum until Carvalho’s appointment. The ordinance that created OPAT requires all of its bodies hold four public meetings per year, but, until last week, the OPAT Commission and the Internal Affairs Oversight Panel had not met since May 2024. And its online dashboards on complaints and police use of force went dark for months last year.

Now, Carvalho hopes that through public interactions such as the one he held at the diner on Bowdoin Street, he can raise more awareness about the agency and fulfill its goals of enhancing police accountability and building public trust.

He said OPAT has filled vacancies on its boards and recently hired key employees, including a deputy director, chief of staff, and policy analyst.

Evandro Carvalho, standing, the executive director of Boston's Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, at a recent meeting of the Civilian Review Board in Roxbury to discuss police oversight. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

Its budget is now nearly $1.5 million, up from $1.1 million in 2023. For this fiscal year, OPAT budgeted for 15 full-time staffers and 14 members on its boards.

And, OPAT has also held coffee meetups in neighborhoods throughout the city and run a digital billboard campaign, advertising its existence to drivers on Interstate 93.

“It’s all kind of clicking,” Carvalho said. “I’m confident that going forward, as we come into my first year, if you will, that we’re stable and we’re going to be able to execute all functions of the agency.”

Earlier this month, Carvalho hosted an open house at OPAT’s office in Roxbury, which has also benefitted from the agency’s image makeover. Until recently, the marquee above the Washington Street location was bare, scuffed metal; now, it has a sign displaying the agency’s name in large block letters.

In March, the four new members of the Internal Affairs Oversight Panel filed into OPAT’s office for a panel meeting. Carvalho welcomed them with an orientation slideshow, laying out their powers and responsibilities, before the board entered a closed session to hear appeals of past decisions.

“We are here to level up,” Carvalho said.

Dan Glaun can be reached at dan.glaun@globe.com. Follow him @dglaun.