Posted on 03/02/2006 1:43:04 AM PST by 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 dont 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs4.com ...
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.
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.
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).
Forms? Why couldn't this process be initiated online?
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.
Care to comment?
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.
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.
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! ;)
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.
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!
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.
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