Should I file a complaint to a police supervisor?

[Lefty911]

Hi, this is my first post here. I have a situation and could really use some advice.
I called the local police tonight because my neighbor's band was practicing and it was very loud. The other times they've practiced well into the night and kept my kids up. This time, I reluctantly decided to call the police. I spoke to the dispatcher and told her what was going on. I was adamant about remaining anonymous to the dispatcher and she assured me I would remain anonymous. After an hour of continuing to hear the practice. I decided to call again to follow up. The dispatcher seemed uninterested and stated that the officer reported it "unfounded". I told the dispatcher that it was still going on. She said she would let them know. I looked out for the police to come by and for the next 45 minutes saw no one, while the neighbors continued to play. I called the third time and, again, the dispatcher seemed uninterested, even annoyed. I was growing frustrated, so I asked for her name.

Within 10 minutes after the 3rd call, I heard a loud knock on my door. With my baby in my arms, I answered the door. It was a local police officer. He said "You asked to talk to me." I looked behind him and there was my neighbor and his band in his yard, looking at me talk to the officer. I told the officer that I didn't ask to speak with him and, in fact, requested multiple times to remain anonymous to avoid a possible confrontation. Seeing that I was upset, his demeanor changed and he said "I'm just doing what I was told". I asked his name and told him I wanted to talk to his supervisor. He gave me the number to his sergeant.

Minutes later, I called the sergeant. The sergeant told me that he told the officer to come over to speak with me. He said the reason was that I needed to file a complaint about the noise. I told the sergeant that the officer made no mention of that, but instead stated (untruthfully) that I wished to speak to him. I encouraged the sergeant to listen to my calls (which I am sure were recorded) to confirm I never asked to speak to an officer and multiple times asked to remain anonymous. The sergeant said he had another call and offered to call me back. I declined because I saw no use at that point.

I am seriously considering writing or calling the lieutenant or captain regarding this situation. I understand it's just a noise complaint, but now it has escalated and most likely will put me at odds with my neighbor. I called the police to avoid any trouble. I thought I was doing the right thing. I feel the police acted very unprofessional and dishonest. I truly believe the police officer came over to make a spectacle of me in front of my neighbors for bugging them.

Should I go up the chain or just let it go? I don't want to face harassment if I do file a complaint.

[Citicop]

If you feel you recieved poor service, by all means file a complaint.

But do so with a rational understanding of what likely happened.

You say:

I told the sergeant that the officer made no mention of that, but instead stated (untruthfully) that I wished to speak to him

This is an unfounded accusation.

You never told the officer not to come by. You told a dispatcher that. You have no way to know what information got passed on to the officer, and it's entirely possible that he WAS told to contact you in error.

It's very possible that in order to take action, they need a complainant to come forward and make a complaint. I can't charge someone with peace disturbance without a victim who's peace was disturbed. Otherwise, they can ask the people to turn the music down, but have little recourse if they fail to do so or turn it back up after the officers leave.

I understand you don't want conflict with your neighbors, but anonymous reports can seriously hinder the ability of the police to act on your complaint.

[L-1]

I would suggest you use caution before accusing the officer of being dishonest, lest you wind up being dishonest yourself based on your own definition of such conduct.

Prior to being contacted, you never communicated directly to that officer that you wanted to remain anonymous and wished no contact. Instead, you spoke with a third party, the dispatcher, who relayed information to the officer. Sometimes things get lost in translation and you have no idea what information the officer was provided by the dispatcher. If the dispatch tapes show he was told you wanted to speak with him or that contact with you was necessary to resolve your ongoing dissatisfaction, that will make you allegation of dishonesty against him a lie based on your reckless standards of what constitutes truthfulness. Choose your words carefully before you make what may turn out to be a false allegation of dishonesty and a false police report. Many states allow an officer to sue for false or reckless complaints that might damage their reputation.

FWIW, in my state disturbing the peace does not simply involve the making of loud and unusual noise. In order to have violated the law the person making that noise must do so in a willful and malicious manner. In other words, they have to do it with the deliberate intent to vex and annoy others. That rarely happens and is hard to prove. If you state has similar laws and your town has no city ordinances prohibiting sound from exceeding a certain decibel level once it leaves one's property, there was probably nothing the officer could legally do to the quiet the band, hence the unfounded disposition. Of course if this didn't satisfy you and you keep calling, eventually an officer is going to drop by to explain things personally.

[retdetsgt]

I don't know what the policies are there, but where I worked, I didn't need to contact the complainant on a loud band call if I heard it myself. I've arrested/issued citations to people for loud noise after hours several times and never once talked to original caller. I would warn them and return a little later and if I heard it again, it was all over but the tears.

If it were quiet when I got there, I'd just check back once in a while, but I never contacted the complainant unless they requested it.

I think it was handled poorly. I'd write a formal letter to the chief if it were me rather than make phone calls.

[marinepilot]

Hi, this is my first post here. I have a situation and could really use some advice.
I called the local police tonight because my neighbor's band was practicing and it was very loud. The other times they've practiced well into the night and kept my kids up. This time, I reluctantly decided to call the police. I spoke to the dispatcher and told her what was going on. I was adamant about remaining anonymous to the dispatcher and she assured me I would remain anonymous. After an hour of continuing to hear the practice. I decided to call again to follow up. The dispatcher seemed uninterested and stated that the officer reported it "unfounded". I told the dispatcher that it was still going on. She said she would let them know. I looked out for the police to come by and for the next 45 minutes saw no one, while the neighbors continued to play. I called the third time and, again, the dispatcher seemed uninterested, even annoyed. I was growing frustrated, so I asked for her name.

Within 10 minutes after the 3rd call, I heard a loud knock on my door. With my baby in my arms, I answered the door. It was a local police officer. He said "You asked to talk to me." I looked behind him and there was my neighbor and his band in his yard, looking at me talk to the officer. I told the officer that I didn't ask to speak with him and, in fact, requested multiple times to remain anonymous to avoid a possible confrontation. Seeing that I was upset, his demeanor changed and he said "I'm just doing what I was told". I asked his name and told him I wanted to talk to his supervisor. He gave me the number to his sergeant.

Minutes later, I called the sergeant. The sergeant told me that he told the officer to come over to speak with me. He said the reason was that I needed to file a complaint about the noise. I told the sergeant that the officer made no mention of that, but instead stated (untruthfully) that I wished to speak to him. I encouraged the sergeant to listen to my calls (which I am sure were recorded) to confirm I never asked to speak to an officer and multiple times asked to remain anonymous. The sergeant said he had another call and offered to call me back. I declined because I saw no use at that point.

I am seriously considering writing or calling the lieutenant or captain regarding this situation. I understand it's just a noise complaint, but now it has escalated and most likely will put me at odds with my neighbor. I called the police to avoid any trouble. I thought I was doing the right thing. I feel the police acted very unprofessional and dishonest. I truly believe the police officer came over to make a spectacle of me in front of my neighbors for bugging them.

Should I go up the chain or just let it go? I don't want to face harassment if I do file a complaint.

You stated that during your FIRST call to the police you requested multiple times to remain anonymous, but nowhere in your story does it say that during the subsequent calls you requested such. If you did not, then each call is considered a separate incident and the dispatcher would not necessarily know that you did not wish contact.

Without knowing where this is happening, we can only say what we know for our states. In Florida, at least in my county, your call for loud noise, especially because there was no contact with the complainant, would be issued as a BOLO (Be On the Look Out) and probably no one would have even gone by the area, depending on how busy they were elsewhere. Second and subsequent calls, same thing, IF you requested to be anonymous, which we don't know yet if you did or not. You said your second call was an hour after the first, so they had probably issued the BOLO and considered it done. The second call, same thing. The third call they must have assumed you wanted to make a complaint so they informed the officer to contact you. Because, again, in my area only ('cause that's what I know), I can do very little about a noise complaint without a COMPLAINANT. I am forbidden from making a disturbance of the peace complaint while on duty (that is, I can't be the victim for a disturbing the peace incident and then arrest on such). The most I could do would be to ask the people to quiet down and inform them that their neighbors were calling (just using the term generally, not pointing out specifically which one). If they don't, again, nothing I can do without a complainant. Can't even issue them a ticket.

For once I totally disagree with retdetsgt and believe you should just call the office and ask their policy on the matter before you go off and write a formal letter to the administration. If their policy is to BOLO calls such as that if they have no complainant (as it seems it could be from your description of the incident), your time would be wasted in writing a complaint letter and would be better off beginning a campaign to have them change their policies.

[Lefty911]

Thank you for the responses. I wasn't meaning to imply the officer was being dishonest himself. I was speaking more about the way it was handled by "the police". It very well may have been that the dispatcher told him I wanted to speak with him. That's why I implored the officer and sergeant to listen back to the tapes and find I didn't request to speak to an officer. I spoke to the same dispatcher each time, so I didn't think I would have to requests again and again that I wanted to remain anonymous.

All I wanted the police to do is go by the neighbors and tell them to turn it down. I wasn't trying to make a big deal out of it. Should I have went over to my neighbors and asked them to turn it down myself? Perhaps, but I didn't feel like that was a good idea. I didn't want to risk something happening while I'm caring for my children by myself. Plus, if I were to get in trouble I would lose my job. Again, I thought I was doing the right thing. I can't say that I would do it again, though.

[retdetsgt]

For once I totally disagree with retdetsgt and believe you should just call the office and ask their policy on the matter before you go off and write a formal letter to the administration. If their policy is to BOLO calls such as that if they have no complainant (as it seems it could be from your description of the incident), your time would be wasted in writing a complaint letter and would be better off beginning a campaign to have them change their policies.

Why? If the officer and the sergeant did nothing wrong, then the complaint will be either unfounded or exonerated and she will get a letter back explaining why. If they did screw up, then it needs to be dealt with, but it will be properly investigated either way. Sometimes IA complaints can be a good form of training.

Policies vary from department to department. If it's the way there the way in is in your jurisdiction, it's one thing. Where I worked, they are taken as regular calls for service. Lower priority, but still it's a call and there has to be a disposition on it. If they acted within their policy, fine. All that will be explained to her formally and she won't wonder if it was being kissed off over the phone. But if they didn't, it needs to be corrected.

Personally, I think contacting the complainant unnecessarily on a call like that is stupid. Why would you want to risk subjecting them to retaliation? If someone is so insensitive to others that they play music loud at night, they would probably have no problem in doing something to get back at the caller. If your chief or prosecutor requires it, there's nothing you can do, but if I hear the noise, I can make the arrest.

[retdetsgt]

All I wanted the police to do is go by the neighbors and tell them to turn it down. I wasn't trying to make a big deal out of it. Should I have went over to my neighbors and asked them to turn it down myself? Perhaps, but I didn't feel like that was a good idea. I didn't want to risk something happening while I'm caring for my children by myself. Plus, if I were to get in trouble I would lose my job. Again, I thought I was doing the right thing. I can't say that I would do it again, though.

I don't blame you. A few years ago, the house directly behind was a rental for a while and several young men moved in. One night, I woke up to a horribly loud stereo. My house is super insulated so it had to be loud to wake me up. I went into my backyard and it was unbearable.

I started to go over there and then remembered that I'm in my mid 60's, but sometimes forget that. Particularly if they got cute with me, it could be ugly. So I decided it would be better to call the police. A couple of officers showed up, went to the door and the music went off. No fuss, no muss. That's what they're paid to do and what I was paid to do when I worked uniform.

[McNulty]

What did your neighbor say when you went over and talked to him about the loud noise from his band practicing at night?

[ChesCopPodz]

Here, we are so short staffed, we don't send officers on anonymous loud music calls.

And before calling anyone "dishonest", think it through.

Dispatch gets a call stating you want to be anonymous. Maybe someone goes out, maybe not. I don't know. Then you call 2 more times. The Sgt tells the officer to go talk to you.

There are a few things that could have happened. The other two times you called, you may have not asked to be anonymous. Dispatch may have told the Sgt that you wanted to speak with an officer since you didn't ask to be anonymous that time. Or the Sgt could have assumed you did since you called two more times. Or when the officer was ordered to go contact you, he may have assumed it was because you wanted to. Which most of us would assume. If I'm being told to go contact someone who called us, I assume it's because they want to be contacted.

None of that is "dishonest"

[Lefty911]

What did your neighbor say when you went over and talked to him about the loud noise from his band practicing at night?

I never did go over and talk to him. I know calling the police wasn't the most "manly" thing to do, but I just can't risk getting in trouble. I would lose my clearance. I wasn't sure if they were drinking or what. Not trying to judge him, but he doesn't work and just looks like trouble. I have a lot more to lose than him, imho. I am going to talk to him man to man when I see him and just explain the reason I did what I did. I just feel like if he doesn't have sense enough not to play loud music well into the night, he probably wouldn't understand the reason I called.

[retdetsgt]

Here, we are so short staffed, we don't send officers on anonymous loud music calls.

Asking the police not to contact you is not the same with being anonymous. When I called on the loud music, I gave my name, address, phone, etc., but the dispatcher here in my town asked if I wanted contact and I said no. The cop heard the music by the time he was a block away, contact was unnecessary to verify they were violating a city ordinance.

It's not that hard. We dispatch cars on calls like that and tell the officer the complainant doesn't want to be contacted. They will provide the phone number if the officer wants to talk to them. But again, if the music or noise is still loud when the officer arrives, why should he have to? He's a witness to the violation.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it is to the guy who has to get up at 6 am to go to work and some @sshole has his stereo turned up to nine or has his band playing in garage, turning it into an amphitheater sound-wise. As I've said many times, most citizens have one or two contacts with the police their entire lives and calls like these are good ones to get public support. And a good way to lose it if things like this are ignored. They're not that hard, don't take much time and people generally respond to the first warning. And you look like a hero to the guy who's trying to sleep.

Some neighbors I wouldn't have a problem contacting, but the complainant is generally the best judge as to whether it's a good idea. I've seen neighborhood problems escalate over things like this. And you should be able to tell the dispatcher you don't want to be contacted and it be honored if you give enough info they can recontact you by phone.

The other thing that can alleviate problems is have the call taker explain what the policy is so the complainant knows. If it's a busy night and no one will be able to respond right away, tell them. Also tell them it the it will dispatched as an information only. If the policy is they have to be contacted, explain that. But it's BS to let them think they won't be contacted and have the officer do so especially after he's talked to the noise maker.

[Blackgoat06]

Prior to being contacted, you never communicated directly to that officer that you wanted to remain anonymous and wished no contact. Instead, you spoke with a third party, the dispatcher, who relayed information to the officer. Sometimes things get lost in translation and you have no idea what information the officer was provided by the dispatcher.

For a little over a year now we've had the CAD systems in our car where we can view the calls. It's sometimes alarming how much dispatch leaves out when dispatching. Sometimes it's important, sometimes it isn't, but I've definitely seen them leave out "no complainant" or "see complainant." I've seen them sit on calls for a neighboring department for 30 minutes then give them out like they just occurred.

I'm not trying to bash our county dispatchers but I feel the public should be aware of this, particularly in the case of this thread. You can't assume we know the whole story. It is fairly common for people to tell me they told 911 something and I was never advised.


That said, I also agree with RDS. Unless they specifically tell me the caller wants to speak to police, on a noise complaint that I can hear, I don't see any reason to go to the caller's house. As was already said, I could call by phone if need be, but even that isn't usually necessary. In that situation the anonymous call gets you in the area but you can do the rest if it is still going on.

[marinepilot]

Why? If the officer and the sergeant did nothing wrong, then the complaint will be either unfounded or exonerated and she will get a letter back explaining why. If they did screw up, then it needs to be dealt with, but it will be properly investigated either way. Sometimes IA complaints can be a good form of training.

Policies vary from department to department. If it's the way there the way in is in your jurisdiction, it's one thing. Where I worked, they are taken as regular calls for service. Lower priority, but still it's a call and there has to be a disposition on it. If they acted within their policy, fine. All that will be explained to her formally and she won't wonder if it was being kissed off over the phone. But if they didn't, it needs to be corrected.

Personally, I think contacting the complainant unnecessarily on a call like that is stupid. Why would you want to risk subjecting them to retaliation? If someone is so insensitive to others that they play music loud at night, they would probably have no problem in doing something to get back at the caller. If your chief or prosecutor requires it, there's nothing you can do, but if I hear the noise, I can make the arrest.

I was just disagreeing because to write a formal complaint letter when nothing wrong has been done would be a waste of time both for the OP and the department. If he truly wants to, that's fine, but again, if their policy is like ours, it'll be like you said and it'll go nowhere. I can see your point on that, and I agree that the OP should make contact, but I would just add the extra step to call and see exactly what the policy was before I complained to the administration. Just my two cents I guess, and it's worth less than that!

As for contacting the complainant, it's just in our policy as well as our laws. Here in Florida LEO's on duty can't be the victim/complainant on a disturbing the peace call, as I explained above, so I have to have a victim/complainant before I can cite or arrest. I've been on PLENTY of loud music calls, even those with no contact, and have asked the people to turn it down, and you're right, usually they do and we look like heroes to the people who are bothered by it. But it's those times when they don't, there really isn't anything I can legally do about it without a victim. Not saying I agree, but that's our laws. (BTW, the OP STILL has not told us what state this occurred in, so this is all still spit-balling at this time...)

I don't blame you. A few years ago, the house directly behind was a rental for a while and several young men moved in. One night, I woke up to a horribly loud stereo. My house is super insulated so it had to be loud to wake me up. I went into my backyard and it was unbearable.

I started to go over there and then remembered that I'm in my mid 60's, but sometimes forget that. Particularly if they got cute with me, it could be ugly. So I decided it would be better to call the police. A couple of officers showed up, went to the door and the music went off. No fuss, no muss. That's what they're paid to do and what I was paid to do when I worked uniform.

RDS, I know when you wrote that, you were saying that it would be ugly for THEM!! LOL

Asking the police not to contact you is not the same with being anonymous. When I called on the loud music, I gave my name, address, phone, etc., but the dispatcher here in my town asked if I wanted contact and I said no. The cop heard the music by the time he was a block away, contact was unnecessary to verify they were violating a city ordinance.

It's not that hard. We dispatch cars on calls like that and tell the officer the complainant doesn't want to be contacted. They will provide the phone number if the officer wants to talk to them. But again, if the music or noise is still loud when the officer arrives, why should he have to? He's a witness to the violation.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it is to the guy who has to get up at 6 am to go to work and some @sshole has his stereo turned up to nine or has his band playing in garage, turning it into an amphitheater sound-wise. As I've said many times, most citizens have one or two contacts with the police their entire lives and calls like these are good ones to get public support. And a good way to lose it if things like this are ignored. They're not that hard, don't take much time and people generally respond to the first warning. And you look like a hero to the guy who's trying to sleep.

Some neighbors I wouldn't have a problem contacting, but the complainant is generally the best judge as to whether it's a good idea. I've seen neighborhood problems escalate over things like this. And you should be able to tell the dispatcher you don't want to be contacted and it be honored if you give enough info they can recontact you by phone.

The other thing that can alleviate problems is have the call taker explain what the policy is so the complainant knows. If it's a busy night and no one will be able to respond right away, tell them. Also tell them it the it will dispatched as an information only. If the policy is they have to be contacted, explain that. But it's BS to let them think they won't be contacted and have the officer do so especially after he's talked to the noise maker.

To us, asking the dispatcher for no contact is NOT the same as anonymous. If the complainant ID'ed themselves during the call, I have access to that info. If they have asked for no contact, I also have access to that, and I don't contact them unless I need to. Some ask for contact by phone only, and if that's the case, then I do that. But our dispatchers can also take and ship a call with either an anonymous complainant or a restricted complainant, and in that case, I've got nothing. If I do have the complainants info and they've asked for no contact, I usually just play it off to the person I'm speaking to and tell them I don't know who called, just one of their neighbors.

Nobody is saying at all that it isn't a big deal, just that in certain places, unlike your area, there's not much we can do about it. A BOLO for loud music with either an anonymous caller or no contact is very common here, happens almost every night when we're too busy on other stuff. If the complainant calls back repeatedly, the dispatcher will usually call the Sgt. on duty and tell them about the repeat calls, and then the Sgt. will make the decision whether to go out there or not, and whether or not to contact the caller. So that may be what happened in this case.

[Blackgoat06]

As for contacting the complainant, it's just in our policy as well as our laws. Here in Florida LEO's on duty can't be the victim/complainant on a disturbing the peace call, as I explained above, so I have to have a victim/complainant before I can cite or arrest. I've been on PLENTY of loud music calls, even those with no contact, and have asked the people to turn it down, and you're right, usually they do and we look like heroes to the people who are bothered by it. But it's those times when they don't, there really isn't anything I can legally do about it without a victim. Not saying I agree, but that's our laws. (BTW, the OP STILL has not told us what state this occurred in, so this is all still spit-balling at this time...)

Here if it's late at night we can cite under disorderly conduct-unreasonable noise. The law only states "public inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm." If I go and I hear it myself and it's midnight, combined with being able to say we received a call or calls about it, that's pretty good evidence. I'm not a victim, but I can say as a whole the public was affected, and I wouldn't need to identify any callers just say that we had the calls. But that would only be if they ignored a warning to turn it down or turn it off which very rarely occurs.