Employee Complaint

The mission of the Palo Alto Police Department is to proudly serve and protect the public with respect and integrity.  Our personnel strive to provide service that goes "above and beyond" your expectations, but we acknowledge that sometimes we may fall short of that goal.  In order to maintain public trust and confidence, it is absolutely necessary that our conduct meet the highest ethical standards of the law enforcement profession.

We encourage any person with a complaint regarding service levels or the actions of our employees to bring that complaint to our attention immediately.  We will receive your complaint in a courteous and professional manner, and then we will thoroughly document it and promptly investigate it.  No member of our Department will discourage you from filing a complaint against us or our personnel, nor will any member of our Department commit any act of retribution against you for bringing your complaint forward.

If you would like to file a complaint, please fill out the form below to start the investigative process.  If you'd prefer, you can send us an e-mail at pd@cityofpaloalto.org or give us a call at (650) 329-2406.

For more information about the complaint investigation process and what occurs, or to download a copy of our complaint form that you can complete at home and send back to us instead of completing the online form below, view our Complaint Packet(PDF, 1MB).

Click here to view form.