The Macon City Council public safety committee met behind closed doors with members of the Macon Police Department Monday night to discuss an officer with 11 complaints filed against him in 2011.
Councilman Virgil Watkins says he wanted to talk to administrators with the police department about the policies and procedures for internal investigations.
Macon Police Captain Jimmy Barbee says they had 104 complaints from citizens last year and 147 from within the department.
Watkins says 11 of the total 251 complaints were about officer Josh Sanderson. According to Watkins, the officer received 70 complaints since 2006, which he believes is one of the highest in the force.
Sanderson, who was named the 2011 uniformed officer of the year, joined the police department in 2001, according to the Macon police website.
Watkins could not say how many of Sanderson's complaints were dismissed or how many resulted in disciplinary action.
In February, Burns told 13WMAZ he planned make 2012 the "year of accountability." His goal was to reduce the total number of complaints against officers, and says so far, he feels they're on track to do that.
He says, "One complaint is too many, but every citizen that we have contact with, they have the right to complain. Once they've filed a complaint, then we thoroughly investigate it, and it goes before a disciplinary board to either sustain a complaint or not sustain it."
Burns says officers also police themselves and each other, and those officers with multiple complaints receive additional training.