Citizen's complaints, part 1: Bay City Police Department receives 16 complaints from roughly 300,000 contacts

In the past five years, the Bay City Police Department has received 16 citizen’s complaints against its officers, a figure the agency’s chief believes is low but still leaves room for improvement. “I would prefer to have zero complaints of misconduct or rules violations by my employees, but the very nature of law enforcement is confrontational,” said Chief Michael J. Cecchini. “I don’t think 16 complaints in five years is excessive if you look at the total number of citizen contacts we have, and most of those are enforcement contacts.” The chief offered a "conservative estimate" of 300,000 contacts his officers have had with citizens from 2007 through 2011.

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