Complaints & Commendation - Forms

The Internal Affairs Division serves as the professional standards unit of the Los Santos County Sheriff's Department, comprised of specially selected and highly trained investigators. Our primary role is to investigate complaints involving on-duty or off-duty Sheriff's Department personnel regarding possible violations of law or policy.

Reports must be filed within 7 days of the incident in question, to ensure a clean and fair investigation. If you have any issues with submitting the form or filling it out, you can contact a Deputy at our Paleto Bay Station and they should be able to assist you, however, they are not considered representatives of Internal Affairs, thus they will not be able to answer any questions. Deputies may also use this form to place a complaint against another Deputy if they feel their direct supervisor is not able to handle the situation or if the situation involves their direct supervisor.

Reports cannot be filed by individuals with ACTIVE criminal charges, you must be fully convicted and sentenced of any active criminal charges before you can submit a complaint. Criminal Charges do not get put on hold by Internal Affairs, law enforcement officers must and will sentence you.

Internal Affairs will also not handle criminal charges appeals as we have in the past, any appeals related to criminal charges have to go through the Court of Appeals (see San Andreas Judicial Branch), however, you are still free to submit a complaint and we'll perform an investigation into potential misconduct and provide you with guidance should misconduct be found.

The Sheriff's Department Internal Affairs will accept complaints of the following nature:

• Professional Misconduct. (e.g. lack of service, aggressiveness, disrespectful speech, etc.)

• Law-Breaking Nature. (e. g. employee illegally enters your property)

• General Complaints. (we'll always respond and give guidance)

It is advised that if an individual has the intention to appeal criminal charges given to them, in addition to submitting an Internal Affairs complaint, that they also go through the Court of Appeals process at the same time, as both processes have a strict timeframe. 

• As with any investigation by the Sheriff's Department, the evidence is crucial to helping us reach the appropriate outcome of your case. Please include ALL the information and evidence available at the time of the report to obtain the best results. Even if you have no evidence available, your report will be treated the same and your allegation(s) will be investigated.

• (( All evidence provided In Character to us must be in accordance with the server rules. If /record isn't used in your evidence, there must be proof of RP where you obtain, setup and active recording equipment such as CCTV / Body-Camera / Dash-Cam and any other methods of recording. ))

• When a report is submitted to Internal Affairs, it will be reviewed by a supervisor of Internal Affairs who will determine if the report should be forwarded to our investigations database. If the supervisor determines that it's not a legitimate report for any reason, they will send you an email stating why it will not be forwarded.

• Once a report has been forwarded, the supervisor will assign one or more investigator(s) to initiate the investigation around the allegation(s). Investigators will seek out factual evidence pertaining to the report through statements, recordings, or any other means (e.g. forensics). Depending on what the report pertains to, this process varies in time length, it can be anywhere between 2 days and up to 2 weeks before they've concluded their investigation. An Internal Affairs Supervisor and/or Internal Affairs Command will monitor the investigation thoroughly and give guidance to investigators should they need it.

• Once the investigation has been concluded, the investigators will give their recommended conclusion to an Internal Affairs Supervisor and/or Command and they will conclude the report. An e-mail will be sent to your e-mail once the report has been concluded where they will inform you of the conclusion. If the report is found sustained, then the officers it pertains to will be disciplined according to LSCSO policy, which should be anything from a verbal warning, written warning, suspension, wage garnishment, demotion to a dishonorable discharge.

• The Blaine County Sheriff's Department will also offer compensation if certain specific allegations are found sustained.

• While every effort is made to keep the identity of a reporter private, some aspects of the case may inadvertently reveal the identity. The Internal Affairs Division's policy is that the identity of reporters is never disclosed to those outside of Internal Affairs and Executive Staff directly reviewing the complaint unless the reporter discloses this information themselves.

• Prior to filing a report, please consider whether or not your complaint could be handled by on-duty Sheriff's Department supervisors. Many situations do not require Internal Affairs and we receive many complaints that could be easily resolved by supervisors in the field. If you are unsure, you may go ahead and submit the complaint and it will be assigned accordingly.