SPRINGFIELD POLICE DEPARTMENT PROCEDURES FOR
FILING A CITIZEN COMPLAINT


Citizen Complaint Procedures


The Springfield Police Department’s goal
is to improve the quality of services provided,
to promote a high level of public confidence,
to enhance and maintain the professional integrity of the department
and its members.

A formal procedure to receive, document, and investigate
all citizen complaints allows the department to monitor and
enforce standards and is the administrative statement that
behavior deviating from these adopted standards will not be tolerated.
With a meaningful and effective procedure for handling citizen complaints,
we believe citizen confidence in the integrity of the department and
its employees will be achieved and maintained.

It is the policy of the department to accept, document, review and
investigate all instances of alleged misconduct,
to include complaints regarding the directives or procedures
of the department and to equitably determine whether the allegations
are valid or invalid and to take appropriate action.
All allegations of misconduct will be investigated,
regardless of whether initiated by a citizen complaint,
other external agencies, internally generated, or discovered
through the internal review and administrative processes
of the department.

It should be understood that the department expects
and receives the highest degree of integrity from its employees
and accordingly presumes, unless evidence is discovered
to the contrary, that all employee actions are performed in good faith.

--Springfield Police Department Police
Administration


Procedures for filing a complaint