Want to file a complaint against a police officer?
Good luck.
The person answering the phone at the police department may not be able to give you full information or, in some cases, will flat-out refuse to help you.
The information you’ll receive when first contacting a police department to complain about an officer depends on the person answering the phone, according to a report released last week by the Connecticut chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
That’s why the state should pass a law requiring police to handle complaints in the same manner, the report concludes.
The Connecticut ACLU issued a report last week, “Protect, Serve, and Listen” which documents the group’s efforts to determine procedures for making civilian complaints at 104 police stations in the state.
Volunteers working for the ACLU called the departments — using *67 to block their information from appearing on caller ID — asking a number of questions to determine procedures for making complaints at different departments.
Among the questions asked by the ACLU volunteers:
- “How does someone filing a complaint get the form?”
- “Could he make the complaint anonymously?”
- “If an illegal immigrant wanted to file a complaint, would Immigration be called?”
The ACLU said their findings show a “clear need to set standards” for accepting civilian complaints in state law but recommends police departments begin to make changes immediately.
Among the report’s findings (reprinted from the report):
- Twenty-three percent of municipal police departments (excluding state police) reported having no complaint form for civilians to fill out.
- Sixty-one percent of the municipal police agencies in Connecticut told our callers they would not accept anonymous complaints, although law-enforcement policy experts strongly agree that police should accept complaints made anonymously. Another 10 percent could not or would not answer the question.
- Threatening criminal prosecution for false complaints is widely considered a deterrent to those with legitimate complaints. Yet nearly two-thirds of the complaint forms posted online by municipal police departments in Connecticut contain such warnings.
- Law enforcement policy experts recommend strongly against demanding a sworn statement from a civilian filing a complaint, but nearly half the complaint forms posted online by municipal police departments in Connecticut mention that requirement. Employees at several departments without online forms also mentioned the requirement to our callers.
- Only a third of departments in the survey clearly stated that immigration authorities would not be called against a civilian complainant. More than half did not answer or expressed some degree of uncertainty and 15 percent said they would definitely report a complainant to immigration authorities.
The full report is embedded below. Article continues after the document.
In the Valley, the results were mixed.
Shelton
In Shelton, according to the report, the ACLU volunteer was told complaint forms are available at the police station, but that anonymous complaints were not accepted and immigration authorities may be called if an illegal immigrant were to make a complaint against an officer.
Lt. Robert Kozlowsky, a Shelton police spokesman, said Thursday that despite the report’s findings, the department does investigate anonymous complaints.
“Our policy on Internal Investigations states ‘The Shelton Police Department will investigate all complaints concerning employee conduct received from any source outside or inside the department,’” Kozlowsky said.
In addition, he pointed out the department’s website has links to directly e‑mail police administrators, from Chief Joel Hurliman on down, where a person can send a complaint “and it would be looked into.”
Regarding inquiring about the immigration status of complainants, he said the issue is not so cut and dried.
“It is not our policy to inquire about someone’s immigration status just because they are at the police department to make a complaint,” Kozlowsky said. “That would only happen in situations where our officer was legally justified to do so in accordance with state and federal laws.”
The department’s policies are periodically reviewed, he added, and “the administration is currently looking to make the online complaint process more user-friendly.”
Ansonia
In Ansonia, the ACLU report says its volunteer was told complaint forms were available at the police station, but got an answer of “unsure” to the question of whether the complaint could be anonymous, and “didn’t know” when asking if immigration would be called on an illegal immigrant making a complaint.
As in Shelton, Ansonia police are currently reviewing their complaint procedures, according to Chief Kevin Hale.
“The policy manual is a living thing,” he said. “You’re never done with it. This was one of a series of policies we’re in the midst of changing.”
The city’s Police Commission reviews proposed changes and then decides whether to approve them, Hale said.
Upcoming changes will include making complaint forms available online, he said.
Hale also said anonymous complaints will be investigated, and that police will not inquire about a person’s immigration status if they’re making a complaint.
That’s because police officials want to know if one of their subordinates is doing something wrong, Hale said. “If there’s a problem we’d like to know about it.”
Kozlowsky agreed.
“The administration does care about complaints,” he said. “There are many times that the administration finds out a policy needs to be updated or corrected because of a civilian complaint. It also allows the administration to focus on areas where more training is needed for the officers.”
Derby, Seymour
In Derby, the report says the ACLU caller was told no complaint form exists, that anonymous complaints were accepted, but that if an illegal immigrant makes a complaint, immigration authorities would be called.
Lt. Sal Frosceno, the Derby Police Department’s spokesman, was on vacation last week. The Valley Indy sent an e‑mail to Police Chief Gerald Narowski seeking comment Thursday morning.
In Seymour, the ACLU volunteer was told complaint forms are available at the police station, and that immigration authorities would not be called if an illegal immigrant filed a complaint.
But the department doesn’t accept anonymous complaints, and the reason for that is simple, said Lt. Paul Satkowski: the police union negotiated them out of the contract.
“There’s certain procedures we have to follow, that’s contractual obligations with the union contract,” he said. “That’s what we’re bound by.”
The contract says complaints have to be written and notarized, he said, which makes anonymous complaints “pretty hard to take.”
Still, Satkowski said, if anonymous information can be corroborated by other witnesses or sources, police will pursue an investigation.
Satkowski also pointed out the difference in scope between a department like the Connecticut State Police, which has its own unit devoted to complaints and investigations, and those like Seymour, where the responsibility for conducting internal investigations falls pretty much entirely on Satkowski himself.
But the difference means departments like his can be more flexible, he said.
“They don’t have to come here, per se,” Satkowski said of complainants, adding that in the past, if a person felt uncomfortable about making a complaint at the police station, he’ll arrange to meet them at a “neutral” location like Town Hall or the library.
“If anybody has a complaint, ask to speak to a supervisor,” Satkowski recommended. “We’ll be more than willing to talk to the person and guide them through the process.”
Though looking into complaints of misconduct is not something police look forward to, it still has to be done, he said.
“Nobody likes to do internal affairs, but they’re necessary,” he said. “They’re necessary for public integrity and trust, and to keep the organization moving forward.”
He also said that the department will be putting complaint forms online as part of an ongoing, town-wide update of public websites and information technology.
ACLU Reaction
Jeanne Leblanc, the communications and education manager for the ACLU of Connecticut, said Friday that since the issuance of the report, her group has been pleasantly surprised by police reaction.
Did police honchos just call the ACLU a bunch of Commies and throw the report in the trash?
Far from it, she said.
“We are very encouraged by the response we’ve been getting from chiefs of police,” Leblanc said. “We know that some of the police departments we surveyed had good policies but the responses to our survey didn’t reflect them, and we are hearing from police chiefs who want to address that problem internally, with training.”
“Putting forms online would be another positive step,” she said.
Still, it would make the most sense for state lawmakers to make the policies mandatory.
“We would still like to see standards codified in state law so that those departments without good policies on accepting civilian complaints are required to adopt and follow them,” Leblanc said. “And of course this would be no problem at all for the departments that already have and follow appropriate policies.”