If I file an Internal Affairs complaint agains the police will that get my loved one released from a Baker Act facility?

Hello everyone, its Mark. And welcome back. In this video I want to talk to you about filing an Internal Affairs complaint against the police in the hope that it’s going to get your loved one released from a Baker Act facility. So I had a potential client and who called us. They told us that their loved one had been baker acted by the police and now they were being detained and stuck at a Baker Act facility.

And they said, well we’re going to go to the local police department, we’re going to file an Internal affairs complaint and hopefully that should end things and get the police to go over to the facility and bring our loved one back out. And I said to him, look, I’m not here to tell you if you should or you should not file an Internal Affairs complaint. If you think the police did something wrong, they violated your rights, then go ahead, file the complaint. I mean, I don’t do civil rights litigation. I don’t sue police officers.

And I’m not saying you shouldn’t. I’m just telling you those are not the kinds of cases that we handle. What I will tell you is that if you’re going to file a complaint against the police or the facility or anybody else associated with this, that it’s almost certainly not going to get your loved one released. Don’t think that by going to the police department and filing a complaint or kicking up a stink that the police are going to go back to the facility and take your loved one out and take them back home for you. It’s simply not going to happen.

And as I’ve said in other videos, there’s only two ways your loved ones going to come home. Number one, the facility releases them. And if they’ve been there for more than a couple of days and there’s no indication that the facility is going to do that, in all likelihood they’re not going to release them. The other way that your loved one is going to come home is if you’re willing to fight to get them released. What does that mean?

Well, it means going to court and getting a judge to order them released. And that is typically the very best way and the fastest way to get somebody out of a Baker Act facility. Now look, obviously if the facility is going to let them go, you don’t need us. The kinds of cases that we handle is where the Baker Act is being abused, where your loved ones rights are being abused, they’re being detained when they shouldn’t be and as a result they’re stuck there. And they’re stuck there because frankly, nobody knows they’re there.

The facility doesn’t have to report to anybody that your loved one is there. So if you want to get them out, you can file complaints against whoever you want. But if you want to get them out and get them out quickly, the best way to do that is for us to go to court, get a judge to order them released, and that’s where we can help you. So I hope that answers the question about filing an Internal Affairs complaint. And with that said, I’ll see you in the next video.

Bye.