Police Station Intimidation-Parts 1 and 2

CBS 4 News ^ | Feb 4, 2006 | Mike Kirsch

[CrawDaddyCA]

Undercover Video You'll Find hard To Believe I-Team Uncovers Imtimidation In Complaint Process See The Reaction From Police Officials

Most police officers are a credit to the badge, serving the community and the people who pay their salary, getting criminals off the street, making the community safer for everyone.

But on occasion, a police officer and a member of the public they serve don’t see eye to eye, and the citizen feels a need to complain. In many departments around the country, the process starts out simply: a person just requests a complaint form.

Police departments around the country, like here in Tallahassee, give citizens police complaint forms all the time, no questions asked. But walk into a police station in South Florida, trying to find out how to file a complaint, and watch what happens.

CBS4 News found that, in police departments across Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, large and small, it was virtually impossible to walk in the door, and walk out with a complaint form.

[CrawDaddyCA]

Very disturbing. Link to video here: http://cbs4.com/video/?cid=74

[HiTech RedNeck]

I wonder if the "problem" PDs have some kind of internal policy that an officer who piles up too many complaints, whether validated or not, will get penalized.

[ARCADIA]

Forms? Why couldn't this process be initiated online? There should be no need to walk into a station, or to confront the officers who may be the subject of the complaint, just to file a complaint.

[CrawDaddyCA]

I think the report was meant to highlight that police will protect their own against the ordinary citizen (whom they are really supposed to serve).

[R. Scott]

Forms? Why couldn't this process be initiated online?

Imagine the number of bogus complaints that would be filled if it could be done online. The process should not be too easy. I agree that having to confront the officer on whom you are filling a complaint is intimidating.

[ARCADIA]

I can understand the reaction; it's a natural response to want to protect your organization, your friends, and your co-workers. The real question is why would anyone need to walk into a police station just to file one of these things? It makes no sense.

[Toby06]

Care to comment?

[G.Mason]

What is very disturbing is that this staged "I want a complaint form" bit, along with the "tester", that was a person who looked "like they just dropped in from Mars" never told us whether there were, or were not, complaint forms in use by those departments, for the purpose of filing against a police official.

I'm no expert, but I would imagine this type of citizen complain would be screened by a desk officer, then the "tester" would be brought to an internal department (detective) who would listen to, then type up the alleged complaint.

I would think these police watchers were purposely instigating a problem, that they knew in advance, would develop.

[LuxMaker]

I think as the number of people in power or positions of authority increases, the likelihood that those people will abuse their position increases. Police officers already have a code of silence to protect themselves. How does hiding the truth help to protect the public's interests whom they serve? I look forward to more public scrutiny of police officers that abuse their authority.

Please don't forget what happened in California when that soldier was shot after being told to get up. Police abuses happen all the time and I suspect often go unreported.

A little story that I have never made public. I was once driving through Oklahoma. I was very tired. I had a Class-A uniform in the back of the car hanging from a hook. An officer pulled me over. It sounded like he was asking me to get out of the car. The moment I stepped out he put a gun to my temple and cocked it. I immediately put my hands up and closed my eyes. He told me that he had said for me not to get out the car. I screamed that I was tired and did not hear that. He then told me to get into his car, in the passenger side. I did. He was in the driver side looking like he was filling out a report. I was shocked, I still remember shaking. He asked me questions like where I was going and where I was coming from. He told me he had dealt with people that wrapped themselves in piano wire so they wouldn't come apart when he shot them. He then told me never to go through Oklahoma again. At that point I was happy to agree with anything he had to say just to get away. After some minutes he told me I was free to go.

[CrawDaddyCA]

True it was staged, but that still does not justify the officer asking for the guys ID, asking his name, where he lived. The 'tester' asked what the procedure was to file a complaint. Also, the officer following him outside and very clearly threatening him with his hand on his side arm was definitely uncalled for.

The police serve the people, not the other way around. If the officer had nothing to hide, why did he try to have a restraining order placed against the news station forbidding them from airing the film?

P.S. Don't take me as some kind of 'cop hater', my brother is in the sheriff's dept., and even he said that the cop on film was wrong.

[G.Mason]

I was simply speaking of this particular case in point.

Please do not confuse that with my being unaware of corrupt and otherwise inefficient LEO's. I know you won't.

As it stands, I am presently dealing with a sheriff who refuses to reply to a registered letter, about a community juvenile problem, that I wrote to him over three weeks ago.

How dare you, a mere civilian, request an audience with me, the high sheriff! ;)

[G.Mason]

I agree, parts of this article left plenty of doubts about the individual officers and their handling of the request.

[NonValueAdded]

The technique is well-known in marketing research and is called "mystery shopper." Generally we think of this as someone sent into a department store to make a staged purchase or a customer service contact like returning an item and afterwards writing a report about their eperience. It is a simple quality control technique. Except in this case, the "sales clerk" is armed with both an attitude and a firearm. At least one officer needs to be relieved of his law enforcement license, pronto.

[G.Mason]

Nah ... no sale.

The question left unanswered is ...

IS THERE SUCH A FORM EXISTING IN POLICE DEPARTMENTS? ... or is the standard procedure, in the case of a complaint against a police official, that one would be required to state the offence, and who committed the alleged offence, to a desk official, and then is interviewed by an official in charge of that type of incident, where a report is written up by him, (detective comes to mind) much like any "incident" report would be.

One cannot simply go into a police department and ask for a missing persons report, if ones child, wife, or other was missing. You would be interviewed by the desk officer, show ID if requested, and give the particulars of the incident, BEFORE you would be allowed further access.

Like it or don't!

[Cap'n Crunch]

Well, I know it's different at our place, I can't say we solicit complaints but our dept. is very 'complaint friendly' and each one of them, no matter how miniscule is investigated.

I had to leave a letter because a guy made a complaint against me, I was sitting in a school zone early in the morning, during school hours. I did not have a radar or any type of speed enforcement device.

I was mostly looking for known sex offenders and their vehicles, we had one in a multi colored van that was actually getting out of his van and trying to get kids to get in his vehicle.

Anyway, a banker made a complaint against me because he saw people driving over the 20mph limit in the school zone and I 'didn't do anything about it.'

I got called in and had to leave a letter as to why.