Police misconduct...?

Question

I noticed a that a lot of current and former police officers were on this board and I was wondering if I could get some advice.

A few days ago, a junkie with a pair of garden shears tried to rob me right outside of my house. I managed to sprint into a nearby store and call the police, whom I provided a description of the events and offender to and agreed to meet with an officer at that location. While I was waiting I spotted the culprit again, so I knew he was still in the area.

An officer arrived shortely after, and made it clear early on that he resented being there. He had me repeat the same story and description several times, told me my story didn't make sense, repeatedly accused me of trying to buy drugs from the suspect, asked me if I had ever been arrested or charged with any offense(I haven't), and threatened to arrest me for filing a false police report(he made the threat literally dozens of times while berating me for an hour).

-Out of characters, more info to come

After some time, he told me that another call had been made to the police cancelling my original call. He suggested I had done it and threatened to arrest me if I did not confess to it. Nothing about this accusation made any sense to me, as I was with him the entire time, had waited for him to arrive, and had filed a police report.

Eventually the offender went by us, and I pointed him out and had him arrested(astoundingly, he confessed on the spot). The officer offered no apology for his conduct and quickly left as soon as the perp was cuffed.

I went in to the station to complain about his unprofessional and incompetant conduct, and was given some lengthy forms to submit to internal affairs.

I was wondering if there is any chance there will be any consequences for the officer, or if I shouldn't bother with the forms.

My typing is a little off because I'm still irritated thinking about the events. You're spelling and grammer are still worse than mine, hotshot.

...and, of course, I spell "grammar" wrong.

Barry, you'd be pissed too in my situation.

Brigid - Yeah, I'm normally the guy who defends police when the media is ripping on them(unless there is some clear wrongdoing). I have only had to deal with the police once more(years ago), and those officers were much more respectful and helpful.

I don't know if it's a trend, but there are ***** in every occupational field.

Answer 1

If you don't bother with the forms, there will not be any consequences for the the rude behavior of the officer.

Answer 2

Definitely go through with the forms. All complaints filed against a police officer are kept in his record, along with an investigation report of the complaint, and the disposition of the complaint (disposition meaning whether they found evidence to support the complaint, to not support the complaint, whether they found no evidence one way or the other; and what, if any, disciplinary actions were taken). Chances are, nothing will happen to him based on your complaint alone. However, if the officer has several complaints already against him, or if there are other complaints filed against him in the future, then they will eventually have to reevaluate his professional conduct and decide if and what disciplinary actions need to be taken. It can also affect his future promotions.

Also, if you don't file a complaint just on your own behalf, do it for everyone else. Because if he ever does (or doesn't do) something to someone else that justifies a lawsuit against him and/or the department, then the complaintant will have a better case against the department based on the fact that his superiors knew or should have known about his past conduct.

So, I would file the complaint.

Answer 3

i does not subject approximately it, i don't think of that is going to truly be exceeded to start with. there are distinctive issues that i think of the final public has no business enterprise understanding, like what we do with a scum bag terrorist this is hell bent on killing my fellow countrymen. Police misconduct isn't something that must be hidden. If that is this variety of subject that it rather is going for use against the police in court then i will see not permitting it for use in court (such as not employing a persons' offender historic previous), yet not hidden from the conventional public all at the same time.

Answer 4

The first thing I will say is that your last sentence, about every career field, is absolutely true. Cops are people and the quality of them runs the spectrum from wonderful people to complete wastes of space. I like to think that we have more of the wonderfuls thanks to background checks and progressive steps of discipline.

There are always different sides to how things happened, so I am cautious to comment about that officer's conduct. As you describe it it sounds pretty inappropriate. I have been in law enforcement for years and I have even encountered officers who (knowing I was a cop) treated me as crappy as you describe. Some people have bad days, others probably shouldn't even be wearing a uniform.

To play devil's advocate, you could have been in a really bad area and your situation just may have sounded like a drug deal gone bad to the officer. Maybe the officer sized you up as a druggie or a dealer for whatever reason.

He may also have sized you up as someone he could buffalo into taking back your complaint and saving him some paperwork.

The bottom line, in my opinion, fill out the forms. Bring that conduct to light. Maybe it has happened a lot with that officer and your complaint will get much needed attention.

Maybe it's his first complaint and your complaint will seem to be dismissed by the department, but it will be brought to that officer's attention and will wake him up a little bit.

Answer 5

That sort of attitude is unacceptable, and if you dont file a complaint,, the officer will keep doing it. I would not tolerate it, and I am a former officer. They have a duty and are supposed to respect and help the public,, not accuse them of committing a crime,,, unless there was one actually commited, by you... Get names of any witnesses, add to your compaint... I hated working with officers who acted like that.

now on the flip side,,, we are only hearing your version.. I have heard this many times,, "the cops don't do anything"... "they accused me",,, "I was not doing anything and he was picking on me"

so until this comes to court, or heald in a meeting it is hard to make a decision... just keep record

Answer 6

Cops seem to be like this nowadays--particularly the young ones. They seem to want to score points the easy way, by making whoever is at hand be the guilty party. I recently had a cop try to turn me into "guilty" when I was asking them for help, and trying to be helpful to them. They didn't used to be like this years ago.

Answer 7

You did the right thing. See people don't usually report a police officer for misconduct !!! I give you lots of credit and thank you because this is a step towards stopping police corruption.

Answer 8

File a case against the police officer for abuse of authority for falsely accusing you of an offense.

Answer 9

No more details needed - if you were excited after being robbed (natural adrenaline response, has happened to me) and you write this way when calm, he had good reason to try to guide you to get tot he point, and also see if your "speed" was natural response or "induced".

Answer 10

submit the forms, that's the only way things are going to change. gl