Your complaint will be heard, even if you confess in the process!

In a job that requires you to enforce laws, make arrests, and split second decisions it is somewhat expected that you will get complaints at some point from someone, be it the person that was arrested, the person who thought you should have arrested someone else, or the guy who does not like it that you broke his front door serving the search warrant that resulted in a loss of all his drugs and stolen stuff.

Most of the feedback we get is very positive from our community and there are the occasional complaints that are valid and must be looked into and taken care of. However, we get some complaints that always leave us puzzled, wondering what possessed someone to file such a complaint.

One of the most recent was a call from an out of state resident who made a point to write down a deputy's badge number so when he arrived at home he could make sure and report the deputy for something that had upset him very much. When we returned his call, he explained to us that he was traveling through our county on I-49, going a little over 80 miles per hour and after passing a sheriff's deputy, was pulled over. After a short pause on the phone we realized there was not any more to his story. "Okay, so was the deputy rude or something?" we asked. "No, the deputy was very polite," the man replied.

Again, there was no other explanation. Finally, he was asked "so what exactly are you wanting to file a complaint about?" The man then went on to tell us again that he passed the deputy and got pulled over even though he had passed "lots" of cops before while going over 80 and did not get pulled over. He did not think it was fair that he had driven that fast for so long and was just now getting pulled over. He was not issued a citation, and was asked to slow down just a little before being sent on his way.

He asked what could be done about this "problem" so we helped him come up with some options: he could drive a little slower, not purposely speed past a patrol car, and we could always mail him a citation for the speeding since he went through such great lengths to call us and let us know he was indeed driving over 80. He then decided that driving a little slower was not such a bad idea after all.

It was a few months before that complaint, when a man came to the Sheriff's Office demanding his "box" that the deputies had stolen form him be returned. When we looked up his case, we found the box he was referring to was a box taken from a search warrant that contained thousands of dollars' worth of crystal meth. He didn't get the box back.

One of the craziest complaints however, was a man who filed a complaint (from jail) that a deputy had cut his hand with his (the deputies) glasses when he punched the deputy in the face. I'm not sure what he thought that complaint would do, except create a better case against him in court. Although we take complaints very serious when we do receive them, if your complaint contains a confession to a crime, we will take it extra seriously and welcome them all!