In our discussion today I will again talk about complaints against the police. What should you look for when you are deciding weather to file a complaint or not? What location should you file your complaint at? Sometimes it is hard to locate the officer that participated in the incident. So, when you come into contact get a good look at the officer. Try to locate a nametag if possible. If they are in a squad get a vehicle number off the side of the squad or a license plate number. You can always ask for a supervisor to respond to the scene if you are not satisfied with the interaction. It is usually best to go into the district station where the incident occurred if possible. The supervisor who will investigate your compliant will work out of that station. Each sergeant has a number of officers under his supervision, and he will investigate your incident. You can always also go downtown to the Fire and Police Commission during regular business hours.
The sergeant will interview you and get your complete story of what occurred. He will remind you to tell the complete truth or you can be charged if they find you made up the incident. The officer will be interviewed in the upcoming days and the actual interview will be taped usually with another sergeant also present. If the sergeant has a lot of complaints, it might take him some time to finish your compliant. He gives the finished investigation to his lieutenant to review. The lieutenant will eventually give it to the captain who will put a recommendation on it and forward to Internal Affairs. They will review the package and decide if any follow up is needed or if it can be filed away. The sergeant will call you to report the results of your compliant. Many times, the result of the compliant is something we call “not sub stained.” This means they cannot prove or disprove your compliant.
Many citizens are not happy when they find out the results of their compliant. This process is old and could be updated or modified to make it more fair to everyone. For one thing the sergeant who investigates should be from another location, so they are not so friendly with each other. They collaborate with each other each day at that location, so some bias comes in. That is something the Fire and Police Commission would have to look at. Overall if you have good supervisors this is the best system for right now.