She had not withdrawn anything.
She called the listed telephone number.
After waiting nearly forty minutes, she reached a customer-service representative.
"I didn't withdraw my complaint," she explained.
The representative asked for the case number.
Tessa read it aloud.
There was a pause.
Then the woman said, "The system shows it was withdrawn."
"By who?"
"It says the complainant."
"That's me. I didn't withdraw it."
The representative sounded apologetic.
"I'm not able to change that status from this screen."
"Can you reopen it?"
"You'll need to submit a review request."
"How?"
"The instructions are on the portal."
Tessa looked at her phone.
"I already used the portal."
"I understand."
"What happens to the body-camera footage while I'm waiting?"
The representative hesitated.
"I'm not sure about evidence retention."
"Who can tell me?"
"I can transfer you."
The call disconnected during the transfer.
Tessa sat in the back room of her salon staring at the phone.
She was angry.
But mostly she was tired.
She had work to do.
Bills to pay.
Children to feed.
Clients waiting.
She had spent hours trying to get one basic answer.
Had the officers followed the rules when they detained her son?
And now the city was telling her that she had withdrawn a complaint she had never withdrawn.
She tried again the next week.
Another representative told her the case could not be located.
A third said the number belonged to an older reporting system.
A fourth suggested starting over.
Tessa submitted a second complaint.
The system marked it as a duplicate.
Then it closed that one too.
She printed both confirmation emails and placed them in a folder.
For several months, she kept trying.
Eventually, a customer at her salon mentioned that the Public Accountability Center had helped other residents understand records requests.