otóż
It is a word that can be used for stressing your expression, and such like Eurola wrote, it may be translated as 'well', 'so'. Therefore you can say either:
Otóż kiedyś na spotkaniu z policją padło słowo........
or: 'Kiedyś na spotkaniu z policją padło słowo....' and the essence will be exactly the same, but in the first example you will stress the fact.