Pubdate: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 Source: Shepherd Express (WI) Copyright: 2002 Alternative Publications Inc. Contact: http://www.shepherd-express.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/414 Author: Chuck Nowlen TO PROTECT AND VIOLATE? Records show rising cop complaints in Racine As hundreds pack Racine Municipal Court to fight $968 citations from a Halloween fund-raiser "rave" bust, records show that the city's police department is no stranger to formal citizen complaints. A Shepherd Express open-records request, in fact, showed a spike in complaints against Racine police officers in 2001, the most recent year for which totals were immediately available. Last year, Racine citizens filed 91 complaints against local police-39 alleging officer incivility and 10 charging excessive force-according to a summary released in response to the newspaper's request. The department received a total of only 56 complaints in 2000, following 53 in 1999, 86 in 1998, 79 in 1997 and 62 in 1996. Last year's 49 incivility or excessive-force complaints also were a six-year high. The department was accused of the violations only 19 times in 2000, following 22 such complaints in 1999, 29 in 1998, 24 in 1997 and 21 in 1996. The department declined to release 2002 complaints to date, citing factors such as officer and citizen confidentiality, and the potential to taint complaint investigations. It also declined to immediately release complaint-disposition information for 1996-2001, citing a lack of computerized summary data. Department Public Information Officer William Macemon insists that the 2001 total doesn't prove much about citizen-police relations in Racine, which has taken substantial media heat for the Halloween bust. Only three people were actually arrested at the Nov. 2 fund-raiser for a local theater, with 441 others ticketed for merely attending an alleged drug rave. "Let's say a department gets 100 complaints but only, say, two are substantiated," Macemon says. "Does that mean the department is doing something wrong? No, it doesn't." The 1996-2001 complaint totals, however, are at least "suspicious," says Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, which is investigating the Halloween bust. "We want to be fair to the officers," he says. "But at least we now are seeing some figures to go with a lot of anecdotal evidence about police actions like the mass-ticketing." - --- MAP posted-by: Josh