The head of the city's police oversight office harshly criticized the Austin Police Department for policy changes that she says will limit her office’s ability to be transparent about reported officer misconduct.

Farah Muscadin, director of the Office of Police Oversight, formally objected to the changes in a letter last month to Police Chief Brian Manley and urged him to reverse them.

The Austin Police Department earlier this year reclassified complaint categories and defined a "formal complaint" in more stringent terms, according to oversight office staff members. The oversight office can only share information with the public about formal complaints, and narrowing the scope of that category will limit what the office can divulge.

Manley told the American-Statesman on Friday that the policy changes will allow the Office of Police Oversight more access to investigations. But oversight staffers said transparency is just as crucial as access.

"There’s no benefit to an oversight office if you’re unable to share that information with the public," said Mia Demers, a member of the oversight office.

Muscadin’s office "strongly urges APD to reevaluate what appear to be new obstacles designed to trivialize substantive complaints and disguise them under newly created categories that APD has created against (the Office of Police Oversight’s) recommendation," she wrote in her March 13 letter.

Such obstacles aren’t in accordance with the city's latest work contract with police officers, which requires that the Office of Police Oversight prioritizes transparency in sharing information with the public, she wrote.

Manley said he has been in touch with Muscadin about her concerns. Muscadin said Manley spoke to her once on Wednesday by phone, and that she had to raise the issue about the policy change because she hadn’t received a response to her letter.

To add insult to injury, Muscadin said, the Police Department changed the policy instead of signing a new agreement between Internal Affairs and the Office of Police Oversight, which has been in the works since June.

"APD instead chose to leave this document unsigned and continued to allow investigators in (Internal Affairs) to obstruct oversight staff," Muscadin wrote.

When the Police Department first notified the oversight office of its plans to reclassify complaint categories, Muscadin objected to the changes.

Then, "APD completely disregarded (the Office of Police Oversight’s) feedback, and the objectionable revisions were made" in February, her letter says.