Guns,
I have no doubt the transcripts are acurate to the tape as shown. I do not have confidence that the tape as shown is as it was shot or as the conversations were conducted. What I do not see is a complete and non edited tape with shots from a single continuous perspective. There is too much room to stage a situation then produce the tape you want while leaving a few critical parts of it on the editing room floor.
Please note I am not excusing some of the conduct displayed in the tape. You obviously have some people who are acting in an unprofessional manner. Some of the Sergeants involved should have simply stated to the individual that there is no procedure to use a form to start an investigation and that they can innitiate it now or return during normal business hours and talk to the IA investigators. Keeping the response simple and to the point would make it hard for the person instigating the conversation to draw it out unless they were going to file a complaint.
The idea that a simple form to start a complaint is going to be a panacea for a problem with the complaint process is rather ludicrous. The form won't produce an investigation, lead to a conclusion nor find a recomendation of founded or absolved either. Someone has to conduct an actual investigation. That means talk to the individual filing the complaint, the employee involved and any witnesses to the alleged action. If it involved any situation that could have been filmed, ie. dash cam from a patrol car and so on. Simply stating on a piece of paper that some action occured is not the magic bullet they seemed to portray. There also should be no problem with bringing an independent witness to be with the complainant during the process of filing the complaint. It is not unheard of for the complainant to bring their attorney or other person with them. (At least in my home town)
Let me give you an example of an IA investigation that I was a tertiary part of. A person went to the IA office and filed a complaint. The person did produce ID and gave a story. The allegation was that an Officer went to a Circle K store, bought a "can of columbian gold" went to the rear of the store and in view of the complainant injected the entire can into his arm. Now look at the allegation and see if you see any discrepancy. Also the individual making the complaint was a diagnosed mental case, on record as delusional, paranoid and a compulsive liar. Would you expect the complaint to be dismisssed out of hand? It wasn't. That Officer was followed by undercover detectives assigned to IA on a 24 hr a day surveilance for 3 weeks. After the surveilance was completed he was called in and advised of the complaint, questioned about the allegation and after questioning allowed to read the complaint and a synopsis of the surveilance. Wonder of wonders, the complaint was declared unfounded. I was notified of it as the Officer was my best friend and we took our ladies on a couple evenings out during the time of the surveilance. Since I was seen associating with him I was also listed in the report. I got to read the allegation only because I was also questioned about any possible drug use by my buddy.
There have been quite a few other complaints filed just as bogus as the one I listed. It didn't matter how silly the allegation was, they were all taken and investigated.
It wasn't until some Officers decided to file suits against the persons filing the complaints for false allegations that the numbers dropped. Several attorneys had prompted their clients to file complaints as a way to try and put a mitigating circumstance prior to trial and as a means of intimidation for the Officers involved. It also was a nice way to try and put an assumption of corruption in the juries mind when the attorney asked the Officer on the stand if there had been an internal investigation regarding the very subject of the trial.
Long before dash cams were thought of several of us carried tape recorders on us and taped conversations with our contacts, especially during traffic stops. They came in very handy at times.
