Before killing Decynthia Clements, Lieutenant Christian Jensen of the Elgin, Illinois Police Department had received several complaints accusing him of racial profiling and excessive force, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Jensen served the department for 20 years before this month's shooting of Clements during a traffic stop. Video released of Clements' death shows her being shot dead as soon as she exited her car. Police believe she had a knife on her; her family and their attorney believe her killing was racially motivated.
Between 2006 and 2017, Jensen received six complaints. Most of the claims cited that Jensen used racial profiling and excessive force. Five out of the six people who filed a complaint are African American. Jensen was cleared of all complaints because they were found to be unfactual.
The most recent complaint was filed by an African American woman, who said Jensen pulled her over only because she was black. She said that she felt "threatened and harassed” and that Jensen was “violating her rights.” She went onto say that she "wished the officers would just have had ‘more sympathy’ for the situation and she believed some form of sensitivity training would help the officers," a police report noted.
In 2009, a complaint was made against Jensen when we pulled over a man for not wearing a seatbelt. In 2007, a white man who associated with gangs, made a complaint of Jensen, accusing the officer of choking him during an arrest.
"We take all complaints seriously and we investigate them all. We also know in policing that proactive officers will get complaints from time to time,” Police Chief Jeff Swoboda said this week. “If people have complaints we will investigate every single one of them. We can’t investigate what we don’t know about.”
Jensen also has received some praise from the community; he has gotten 22 commendations and 70 letters of appreciation during his career. He has also received several departmental awards and honors.
Reporters could not reach Jensen for comment. He is on leave while state police investigate the shooting.