LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Every year, dozens of complaints are made against police in Lexington, but how are those complaints investigated and what happens to officers found breaking rules?
It's been months now since Vonnie McDaniels was arrested at a home he owns. He spend Christmas behind bars after getting into a fight with a tenant who told police he was improperly evicted.
Police body cam video shows someone telling the tenant they can enter the locked home through a window to recover their belongings.
McDaniels was arrested and charged with assault and resisting arrest.
He questions why he was arrested now that prosecutors have dismissed his case.
"Soon as we went in there — the prosecutor said the state moves to dismiss," said McDaniels.
The Fayette County Attorney's Office could not go into details about why.
McDaniels filed an informal complaint with Lexington Police questioning his arrest.
"I'm pretty sure there's some law that's been broken, code of ethics, something — that's not right," said McDaniels.
However, the allegations in his informal complaint were determined to be "unfounded".
McDaniels is one of 174 people who filed complaints against the Lexington Police Department (LPD) in 2022. Their annual reports show 200 people filed complaints in 2021 and 186 in 2020.
The most common complaints were in the categories of "rudeness", "questioned arrest" and "inappropriate action".
Informal Process:
After filing a complaint online, over the phone or in person, the public integrity unit forwards it to the affected officer's supervisor for investigation.
The supervisor is expected to update the person who makes the complaint on the status every thirty days until it's resolved and closed.
Data we obtained shows most informal complaints have been unfounded, seen as proper conduct or have insufficient evidence. Bacon says he doesn't see that as a representation of how fair or not fair the process is.
"We do care. That's why we have a unit to investigate complaints just like this, that we want to do the right thing. We want it to be investigated to show not only that we're listening to their concerns, but it might be something to where we can defend it and say this is how they felt. But in reality, the officer didn't do anything wrong and here's why," said Bacon.
Bacon feels they are able to effectively handle investigations without bias, even though their investigations are internal.
"Obviously we have a lot of close relationships with people in the department, but we try to take the name out of it. Look at the allegation for what it is and investigate it," said Bacon.
If someone disagrees with their resolution, their complaint can be taken a step further and investigated as a formal complaint.
"The biggest difference is that a formal complaint requires a signed, sworn affidavit that is notarized," explained Bacon.
The proper form has to be filed with police in person at their offices or with the citizen advocate at the government office.
Then it's sent to the bureau level where the complaint has to be investigated and sent to the police chief within sixty days.
The chief then decides whether to meet with the officer or present the complaint to the disciplinary review board.
The board now has two citizens.
The chief can either take their recommendation or decide differently.
Disciplinary recommendations include termination, demotion, decrease in pay or grade suspension without pay or a written reprimand.
If the officer disagrees the urban county council holds a hearing.
14 formal complaints were filed in 2022. They all were sustained, which means disciplined with either a timed suspension or written up.
Five officers retired and three resigned before discipline.
McDaniels says he plans to see the process through.
