Derek Hsieh with the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association said it's important that officers keep an eye on their subjects.

 

“We frequently remind the officers, and we train the officers, that once you make contact with a person at the front door, particularly if you can observe them, you have somewhat of a controlled circumstance,” Hsieh said. “Once the person leaves your view, you can end up with an uncontrolled circumstance.”

Zellmer filed a complaint with the department.

 

“I tried to call the cops five, six times and say, ‘Look, these cops violated so many of my civil rights, it's not even funny',” Zellmer said.

 

Lt. Dave Parker said he cannot comment on specific cases but, he says, every complaint lodged against a police officer is investigated.

 

“However, because they're personnel matters the results of the investigation can only be relayed in terms of the findings,” Parker said.

 

In a letter to Zellmer, the department said it had ruled that his complaint was “sustained.”

 

“When a complaint is sustained, that means there is sufficient evidence to prove the incident occurred and the person named as the individual or by the complainant was the person responsible or culpable,” Parker said. “In other words, a policy was broken and that individual was responsible for breaking a policy.”