Given what I've seen in terms of shitty cops who stonewall people trying to file complaints, it'd be easier to just get the form directly or file it online.
Openpolice.org seems like interesting site to file a complaint but I'm not keen on going to third parties to do that when you can do it directly. OpenPolice could be a honeypot if anything though in the case it is legit it would involve lag time.
Few examples of complaint forms or sites
Los Angeles, CA: https://www.lapdonline.org/information-on-how-to-file-a-complaint/
- It appears you can file direct to the LAPD (https://tinyurl.com/LAPDComplaint) or LA OIG (App, Email, Phone).
San Francisco, CA: https://sf.gov/file-complaint-about-police-services
- Looks straightforward. Easily Google-able too.
Houston, TX: https://www.houstontx.gov/police/contact/images/swornaffidavit_eng.pdf
- Internal Affairs: https://www.houstontx.gov/police/divisions/internal_affairs/index.htm
Austin, TX: https://alpha.austin.gov/en/police-oversight/file-a-complaint-about-an-austin-police-officer/
- Weird how hard it is to find the correct link given when you click the button it contains a bad link. To thank a police officer though, ha works. I wonder why? SUSPECT.
Round Rock, TX: https://www.roundrocktexas.gov/city-departments/police/divisions/office-of-the-chief/internal-affairs/
- They provide the forms in pdf or word format which is good, but no online forms
New York City: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/ccrb/complaints/file-complaint.page
- Complaint form direct link: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/ccrb/complaints/file-online.page
A lot of government functions are common yet they describe their processes differently even though they could manage to get by with one simple system to feed them data. I wonder if there is a business in serving as the third party contracted to keep service for 99.99999% available and low latency. To upload documents and attach metadata to it. To provide forms online in pdf, word, etc. Each government gets their own secure separated section.
Complaint is just a PDF with some fields filled out to be read by a human. There's nothing inherently expensive about it unless you choose to make it difficult.