OAKLAND (KCBS) – BART is getting closer to hiring staff for an office to monitor civil complaints against its police officers.

The new watchdog agency is just another result of the 2009 Oscar Grant shooting, as some members of the community have demanded an independent group to look at all complaints.

"They decided, as well as with the input from our board of directors, that they wanted a citizen board and an independent police auditor model to independently look at citizen complaints against officers, policies and procedures and to look at what's going well in the department and make sure the community knows that, as well as what needs to be improved," said BART spokesman Linton Johnson.

KCBS' Bob Butler Reports:

He said that several finalists will go before the board in the near future. Whoever is hired will have an assistant, an investigator and $500,000 to work with.

"We budgeted $500,000 a year for the salaries of the three people in the office as well as just running the office itself," said Johnson.

Right now, the complaints go to BART Police internal affairs.

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