Can you file a complaint about a police officer?

As far as I know, they have to give you their name (not sure about their badge number). If you wanted to file a formal complaint, I believe you would have to go through their superiors at the station they work at.

Speaking from heresay, I would exercise discretion in that area. A cop that is unduly hostile in the course of a normal interaction might very well be retaliatory when faced with a filed complaint. This happened to a friend’s brother (or something) with an aknowledged “dirty cop” in Los Angeles. The cop caught him outside the building, took him to an area where there were no cameras and roughed him up and may have impounded his car or made it difficult for him to get his car back. If there’s another cop or other related professional you trust, I would maybe float the idea or situation with him or her first and go from there. Obviously, that’s not the way it should be, but discretion is the better part of valor, as they say.

There was an article in my paper today about a cop who stopped an old man on his 4 wheeler and because the man didn’t stop immediately, the cop pulled him off the 4 wheeler, pounded his face in the cement, hurt his arm and kept yanking at him to hurry to get in the police car. The man couldn’t walk fast as he had recently had knee replacements. There were witnesses to this brutality, but the chief of police stood up for the officer saying it was justified. I would keep my mouth shut and stay under the radar. Once they have it out for you, there are ways they hurt you that won’t be pleasant.

I have done so on one occasion. My brother-in-law has had quite a few involvements with the boys in blue, and my wife and I caught the backlash of that during a traffic stop made by his last arresting officer.

We ran into him as we were at the station to file a complaint and worked things out amongst ourselves without paperwork though. Once he found out that my wife and I had been pretty much disowned by her family, things changed. He’s actually a nice guy overall; he just had issues with my BIL. (So did damn near everyone who knew or knew of him, especially a couple of local banks.)

Things may work differently in a big city as opposed to a small town, but there are channels in place for that sort of thing in every jurisdiction. However, @kevbo raises a good point in that you don’t want to go that route if there are alternatives. We came pretty close to messing up the career of a good cop who really didn’t deserve it.

You definitely can. Most police departments have an office that deals with this kind of thing.

In all honesty, though, don’t expect much in the way of resolution. The police hold all the cards and unlike you, are actually innocent until proven guilty. And even then, in most jurisdictions, it’s exceedingly rare for an officer to receive much more than a slap on the wrist for their misconduct.

They do legally have to give you their badge number if you ask for it. It’s not just so you can complain, but so that you can verify that they’re a real cop and not a perv in a costume. It should also be on any paperwork they give you – like a ticket.

sure, but you better be right. They have friends on the force who could create problems for you. That information (name, badge #, etc) is on the ticket, if you can read it. When I’ve gotten a traffic ticket, their info is not readable. You can get online and write up the situation as you saw it. Most police depts have websites now days. Just be right…you don’t want your local police dept. upset with you.

Every jurisdiction is entirely different. the smaller the jurisdiction, the less-likely your complaint will go very far. in larger jurisdictions and metro areas, your complaint has to be in writing, dated and signed by the complainant. depending on the complaint, most minor complaints are handled on the precinct level, meaning with a supervisor. more serious complaints are forwarded to Internal Affair Sections and fully investigated. please remember this, if your complaint is unfounded, the officer has the right to sue you in civil court for defimation of character. this actually is performed quite frequently. most people just want to get out of a traffic citation or a minor arrest. to answer the other question….our department has very strict guidelines, concerning giving a civillian an officers name and badge number. if requested, we give it, since we have nothing to hide. this may be the difference in a police department being accredited and non-accredited.

btw, my answer is from a small town perspective. Larger metros, sure that would not be true.

Let us not forget that as annoying as a ticket is to you, the average police officer deals with more bullshit by 9AM than most people do all day. Maybe the reason I have only ever had one (minor) issue with them is that I recognize that they have a shitty job and do what I can to not make their day suck any more than it already does.

That is a little tricky in a city that just had four off-duty policemen assassinated, which put all the policemen in the area on edge for a while. I got cuffed while looking down the barrel of a revolver, a shotgun, and an assault rifle after there was a shooting in my neighborhood, but they didn’t know that I wasn’t the gunman and I can’t blame them for being a little over-cautious in the performance of their duties sometimes.

Unless they do something truly egregious then your best bet is to let it slide.