So, You Have a Complaint? : Police: Citizens who want to report being mistreated must run a gauntlet of obstacles, hostility and fear.

Have you ever wondered what a Latino or African-American victim of police abuse, without a videotape of the incident, goes through to file a citizens’ complaint for misconduct?

First, you must discard your gut-level instinct that it is a waste of time; that nothing ever comes from filing a complaint against an officer. This is solid ghetto and barrio wisdom. It is based on the knowledge that police officers, who are sometimes even friends of the culprit, will investigate the complaint, and that the percentage of sustained complaints is woefully low.

If you discard your cynicism, you must then consider your fears that you will run into the same officer in the streets of your neighborhood, where he or she patrols. Or that you will be stopped by other officers who may find out that you filed a complaint against a police officer when they run a computer check on you.

This, too, is based on the popular knowledge that, if they think they can get away with it, police officers will retaliate against those who dare report them for brutality or verbal abuse. These officers have been known to threaten people, roust people, arrest them for nothing and sometimes even harm them physically.

If you overcome those fears for yourself, you must then deal with your family, who will fear police retaliation against you or them, especially if they live with you.

Witnesses will be a problem. Police officers do not roust or beat up people in front of witnesses if they can help it. But if there are any, most usually will refuse to get involved, even your friends. They all share your skepticism and fears.

Assuming you conquer your fears, you probably will go the police station to file your complaint. In the County of Los Angeles, there are three other places not connected to any police department that may assist you in filing such complaints without charge: the ACLU and the Police Malpractice Lawyers Referral Panel, both near downtown Los Angeles, and the East L.A. Police Malpractice Complaint Center.

So you have to step into the unknown world of the police or sheriff’s station. Coming from the ghetto or the barrio, you will step into a sea of mostly white faces. And you must walk up to the desk officer and tell him or her that you want to file a complaint against an officer--someone she or he surely knows--for mistreating you.

In most instances, the officer will interrogate you right there or refer you to a sergeant, who will ask you, usually in an unfriendly manner, why you want to file a complaint. He or she may try to discourage you by telling you that the officer is married, has children and that your filing will put the officer’s job in jeopardy. You may even be told that what the officer did was legal. Or maybe they will tell you that they have no complaint forms.

If you are not discouraged and you do file your complaint, you will be called and interviewed by an investigating officer, usually from the same station. You won’t be telling your story to a sympathetic or even neutral ear. The officer will grill you, cross-examine you and try to tear apart your story, often in a hostile manner.

Usually that will end your participation in the process. You will not be informed of the outcome of the investigation. It is privileged and confidential information. You are, therefore, left with the empty feeling with which you started. That it is a waste of time. That nothing ever comes from filing a complaint against an officer.

Think about this the next time you hear someone argue that the number of citizen complaints about police misconduct filed represents only a portion of the actual incidents that occur in our community.