Only a third of complaints about King County Sheriff's deputies in 2016 ever stood a chance of being taken seriously, according to a report released today.

The report was released through King County's Office of Law Enforcement Oversight, which hired an independent police systems expert, Connecticut lawyer Eric Daigle, to review the complaints.

Daigle found that members of the public lodged nearly 700 complaints against King County officers in 2016. But because of the way complaints are handled by the Sheriff’s Office, only 33 percent of them actually stood any chance of resulting in discipline.

As for the other 467 complaints? They were stamped “not really about misconduct” or “minor misconduct handled by the supervisor.” Nevertheless, analysis of the discarded complaints showed serious allegations among them, including sexual assault and violation of authority.

But even when officer misconduct was addressed by a supervisor, the report found most investigations were incomplete. Only a about a third of the cases went through a formal investigation process.