The Black review counsel looked at the spreadsheet.
“What else?”
Her analyst said:
“High search volume.”
“Yield?”
“Average.”
“Force?”
“Above unit average, below top ten percent.”
“Body camera?”
“Activation gaps higher than peers.”
“Discipline?”
“Minimal.”
“Why?”
“Most individual complaints unsustained.”
She leaned back.
The pattern was not proof.
It was a question.
She asked for every relevant file.
The first night she reviewed footage until 2:00 a.m.
Teenager in rain.
Teacher at school.
Homeowner on porch.
Delivery driver.
Then other incidents.
Some complaints were weak.
One man claimed the sergeant shoved him.
Video showed no shove.
One woman accused him of racial slurs.
Audio disproved it.
Those cases mattered because bad complaints could not simply be ignored when constructing a pattern.
She marked them clearly.
Unsupported.
Then she found stronger concerns.
Not spectacular misconduct.
Behavior.
The sergeant moved closer when questioned.
His voice became shorter.
He interpreted cameras as hostility.
He frequently used:
“Stop arguing.”
“Don’t make this harder.”
“You don’t tell me how this works.”
“Do what I said.”
None illegal by themselves.
But repeated.
A style.
The review counsel watched a stop where a driver asked:
“Why do you need me out of the car?”
The sergeant replied:
“Because I said so.”
Legally, officers can sometimes order drivers out.
But that was not the point.
He had a lawful reason available.
Traffic investigation.
Safety.
Instead he chose personal authority.
Because I said so.
She wrote in the margin:
Authority framed as personal, not institutional.
The next file showed the same.
A homeowner asked whether he needed to provide identification in his own yard.
The sergeant said:
“If you're talking to me, yes.”
Not necessarily legally accurate.
The homeowner complied.
Nothing further.
The review counsel wrote:
Questions treated as challenges to hierarchy.
The pattern became stronger.
Still not enough for formal accusation.
So she interviewed officers who worked with him.
Most were cautious.
“He's old school.”
“He gets results.”
“He doesn't like people playing games.”
“He's intense.”
“What does old school mean?”
Silence.
One officer eventually said:
“He wants immediate compliance.”
“Doesn't every officer?”
“Yes.”