That didn't establish whether every allegation was true.
But it demonstrated a serious weakness in the department's response.
The complaint had alleged specific threatening conduct.
The department treated it primarily as dissatisfaction with an officer's communication style.
The schoolteacher had never received a clear explanation of whether Pike's actions complied with policy.
When investigators contacted her, she sighed.
"I thought they'd forgotten about me."
The investigator explained the review.
The woman listened.
Then said quietly, "I wasn't asking anyone to fire him. I wanted to know whether he was allowed to talk to me that way."
For a moment, she was silent.
Then added, "I kept thinking about what might happen if he stopped someone who couldn't explain themselves as clearly."
The investigator recorded the statement.
And another part of the pattern emerged.
The second complaint involved a seventeen-year-old Black teenager.
Two years earlier, he had been sitting outside a convenience store waiting for his uncle to pick him up after a basketball practice.
Pike approached.
He asked why the boy was loitering.
The teenager explained that he was waiting for a ride.
The sergeant ordered him to leave.
The boy said his uncle would arrive in a few minutes.
Pike interpreted the explanation as defiance.
According to the complaint, he grabbed the teenager by the arm, pushed him against a wall, and threatened to take him to the station.
The boy's uncle arrived during the confrontation.
He asked what happened.
Pike told him to mind his own business.
The teenager wasn't arrested.
But his mother filed a complaint after noticing bruising around his upper arm.
The department obtained Pike's statement.
It did not formally interview the boy's uncle, even though he was identified as a witness.
The complaint was closed without a sustained finding.
The mother remembered receiving the letter.
She sat in her kitchen reading the official language, trying to understand why her son's account had been treated as less reliable than the officer's.
Eventually, she put the letter away.
She couldn't afford a lawyer.
She worked long hours.
And she didn't want to expose her son to another encounter with the same sergeant.
So she stopped pursuing the complaint.
When investigators contacted her after the widow's case became public, she agreed to speak.
She described the original incident.
Then began crying.
"My boy didn't do anything wrong. He was waiting for his uncle."
The investigator listened.
The woman continued.