Michael F. “Mike” Nakagawa was biking down Cambridge Street during his morning commute in 2020 when a car swerved into the bike lane, forcing him to slam on his brakes and sending him over his handlebars.

A Cambridge police officer responded as Nakagawa and the driver exchanged insurance information. But Nakagawa said the officer began defending the driver. When Nakagawa asked the officer to file an incident report, he said he was met with resistance.

Nakagawa said he felt the officer was trying to intimidate him and discourage him from filing an official report. The officer, who did not witness the crash, later faulted Nakagawa for the accident.

According to Nakagawa, the officer did not ask for or listen to his account at the scene. When Nakagawa later read the report, he said he was described as an “inattentive” cyclist, with no mention of the driver operating a vehicle in the bike lane.

Nakagawa turned to the city’s Police Review and Advisory Board to ask about filing a complaint. Members of PRAB — a civilian board that reviews complaints against the Cambridge Police Department — encouraged him to file.

But after submitting a complaint in November 2020, Nakagawa said he heard nothing.

It was not until he sent a follow-up email in January 2022 — more than a year later — that he received a decision. PRAB found that the officer had not “acted unprofessionally or displayed any bias,” according to documents obtained by The Crimson.

His case was dismissed — one of nearly 100 over the past decade.

PRAB has received 101 complaints since 2013, according to a report presented to the Cambridge City Council on Monday. It has substantiated just seven.

Only two cases in the past 13 years have been fully substantiated, meaning the board found conclusive evidence for every claim. Five were partially substantiated. The board found allegations baseless in 46 cases and dismissed or closed another 17. Five complaints remain open.

The city established PRAB in 1984 to “provide a prompt, impartial and fair investigation of complaints brought by individuals against members of the Cambridge Police Department,” according to the board’s website. When a complaint is submitted to the board, an investigation is conducted by CPD’s internal Professional Standards Unit, and then the findings are presented to PRAB.

PRAB can then issue recommendations but does not have the authority to discipline officers. The board consists of five civilian volunteers and one city staff member who serves as executive director.

For more than a decade, Brian Corr served as executive director of PRAB and the city’s Peace Commission. After joining the city, Corr became a prominent voice in civilian police oversight nationwide, leading the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement from 2016 to 2019.

In October 2024, Corr abruptly left PRAB.

According to city spokesperson Jeremy H. Warnick, Corr was placed on paid leave that month before officially leaving city employment on June 20, 2025.

The only public notice of his absence appeared in PRAB’s November 2024 meeting minutes, which listed Carolina Almonte — who also leads two other city commissions — as interim executive director.

Seven months later, City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 informed department heads and city councilors of Corr’s departure in a June 26 email. The message also announced Almonte’s appointment as executive director of PRAB and named Saffana Anwar acting executive director of the Peace Commission.

In the email, Huang wrote that Corr was “no longer with the city” and said Cambridge would be “reviewing the structure of our boards and commissions.” The wording raised questions for some councilors.

“The email suggested to me, and I think to others, that it was not his choice to leave because it just said ‘he’s no longer at the city,’” Councilor Patricia M. “Patty” Nolan ’80 said, adding that she was told there was “no public information to be made that he was no longer with the city.”

Nolan said she first learned Corr was on leave during an April 2025 budget meeting, when PRAB was listed with an interim director.

“Usually, we’re informed when there’s an interim appointed. We hadn’t been informed until we opened the budget books,” Nolan said.

Warnick declined to provide a reason for Corr’s leave or departure. Corr did not respond to a request for comment.

In the months after his exit, PRAB struggled to function, at times failing to meet quorum. Warnick said the board, which meets monthly, missed two meetings after October 2024 for that reason.

Meeting minutes show PRAB also did not meet in December 2024 and convened only five times in 2025 — in January, April, October, November and December.

PRAB is required to publish quarterly reports detailing complaint activity and future plans. Until this week, it had not released a report since January 2023. Almonte said addressing the backlog and filling two vacant seats have been top priorities.

Still, residents have long criticized PRAB’s efficacy — calling for the board to be wholly independent from CPD rather than relying on the PSU for investigations. Calls for PRAB’s independence from the department peaked in 2023, after Sayed Faisal, a 20-year-old University of Massachusetts Boston student, was shot and killed by a CPD officer.

In the months after Faisal was killed, activists pushed for more police accountability and transparency broadly — bringing calls for PRAB members to also be elected rather than appointed by the city manager.

Owen Elrifi was one of five authors of a letter published in the Cambridge Day after Faisal’s death, echoing calls for PRAB to conduct independent investigations and have elected members.

“It does make sense to have independent review and not have the buddies of the guy who just killed the kid be the investigators as well. There are clearly misalignments,” Elrifi said in an interview.

Laurance B. Kimbrough, who served on the board from 2012 to 2018, said he left feeling PRAB was ultimately ineffective for similar reasons, citing its lack of independence and appointed membership.

“This organization exists almost sort of like checking off a box, to sort of appease what felt like community frustrations about policing,” Kimbrough said.

In recent months, Almonte has emphasized revitalizing PRAB by recruiting and training new members, holding consistent monthly meetings and publishing the board’s first-quarter 2026 report.

“I think PRAB does great work, and I think there’s been a lot of transition in the city, but this is one that’s going really well, and I’m excited to support all their work and what they’re accomplishing,” Almonte said.

—Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at shawnb.18. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.

—Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at ClaireMichal.154.