John Elliot, a member of the city’s human relations commission and president of the local chapter of the NAACP, voiced some concern, especially after McKinley told the commission before BPD’s audit that it was current on investigations. “It sounds like the NAACP needs to do more,” he said. “I’m just wondering why people are letting this go, or have they? … Some people think there might not be anything they can do.”

McKinley, who plans to update the commission in the coming weeks, said the complaints were the victim of reduced staffing, and BPD has since established a system for keeping better track of complaints.

“We had some cutbacks administratively over here to work with the city on the budget,” said McKinley, noting that starting in 2009, BPD’s office of professional standards that is responsible for handling complaints went vacant and its duties picked up by several officers rather than one.

McKinley said the department has since tightened up the process by putting one assistant chief in charge of regularly checking on individual complaints as they move through the system.

Many of the remaining complaints considered closed were dismissed in part because no evidence exists to prove the allegations right or wrong — even traffic stop incidents that should be recorded by in-car cameras.