Garner Police Department Annual Report 2018 Published July 2019 | Page 21

C omplaint I nvestigation
T
HE GARNER POLICE DEPARTMENT
investigates all complaints made by citizens
regardless of the source of the complaint
or how it is communicated to us; complaints are
typically deemed to be either an allegation of
serious misconduct or a performance complaint.
The department utilizes electronic tracking
software to record and track all complaints that
are brought to the attention of the department.
Allegations of serious misconduct are complaints
that allege corruption, misuse of force, violation of
the law, violation of an individual’s civil rights, or a
serious breach of department policy or employee
rules of conduct.
Performance complaints typically
allege an inappropriate action
or response by an employee,
improper operation of a police
vehicle, violation of a department
policy or employee rules of
conduct, or any other act or failure
to act that does not rise to the level
of an allegation of misconduct.
Upon
conclusion
of
an
investigation, each complaint is
assigned one of the following
findings:
complaint did not occur or was demonstrably
untrue or false.
Policy Failure–Findings indicate there is
sufficient evidence to prove the allegation
or complaint occurred, but the actions of the
employee were within GPD policy when the
incident took place. This finding indicates
the policy is faulty and in need of review or
revision.
During 2018 there were two instances of
citizen concerns, in which no policy violation
or misconduct was alleged, but the citizen was
still initially unsatisfied with their contact with
an officer.
Fifteen additional
Allegations of serious complaints were filed by citizens
that did rise to the level a
misconduct are
complaints that allege performance complaint. Twenty-
six distinct allegations were
corruption, misuse
made against officers involving
of force, violation of the respective 15 incidents.
the law, violation of an In two of the allegations, the
individual’s civil rights, officer was exonerated. Three
or a serious breach of additional allegations were not
department policy or sustained, 16 allegations were
unfounded, and five allegations
employee rules
were sustained.
of conduct.
Sustained–Findings indicate there is
sufficient evidence to prove the allegation
or complaint.
Non-Sustained–Findings indicate there is
insufficient evidence to prove or disprove
the allegation or complaint.
Exonerated–Findings indicate there is
sufficient evidence to prove the incident
occurred, but the actions or demeanor of
the employee was proper, lawful and/or
within policy.
Unfounded–Findings indicate there is
sufficient evidence to prove the allegation or
In addition, a total of 22
allegations were made by supervisors when
officers were observed to have violated policy,
or it was discovered they had engaged in
personal misconduct.
Of those internally
initiated investigations, all 22 were sustained.
One additional performance complaint was
generated by an outside agency. After a thorough
investigation, this allegation was sustained.
The rate of policy violations or misconduct is
extremely low given that the department had a
minimum of 20,717 documented citizen contacts
(as measured by incident reports, calls for service,
citations, and arrests). In summary, one out of
every 1,218 citizen contacts resulted in an external
complaint or citizen concern, or less than 0.1% of
all contacts.
GARNER POLICE DEPARTMENT 2018 ANNUAL REPORT
21