Holding public servants accountable should be easy with the process set in place, but as one New Jersey activist highlighted, it can be incredibly frustrating. Jordan Panno walked into the Kenilworth police station to file a formal complaint about an officer as part of some ongoing problems. As the TikToker noted in the on-screen text at the start of her post highlighting the situation, “POV: it took 30 minutes for 3 officers to find a complaint form. 7:43-8:15.”
Part of the problem was how the interaction went down. Panno has spent plenty of time at council halls and had even filed a complaint recently. So she was pretty sure the hurdles she was facing weren’t standard procedure. Despite that, she asked her viewers in the caption, “Is this normal chat just wondering,” and over 2.8 million people took a look. Her TikTok post starts with her setting her bag down and stating, “I need to file a complaint, please. I need a complaint form.”
In her video, the officer immediately pushes back. It starts calmly, with him asking, “Mind if I ask exactly what happened?” Panno responded by asking, “Well, isn’t that what the complaint is for?” Then he asked for her identification. She mentions that she wasn’t asked for her ID the previous time, which prompts a response of, “Well, I don’t know who you are, so we have to get your name and information.”
A simple process made difficult
As the interaction drags on, a second officer arrives, and Panno holds her ground, asking, “The ask is, is the law that I have to identify myself with my government-issued ID to file a complaint?” The second officer tries to tell her that maybe the first officer misunderstood and thought she needed to file a report, which Panno vehemently denied. A third officer eventually enters and immediately admits, “Um, we don’t need your ID for this.”
Panno’s frustration is palpable as she tells him, “Yeah, I know. How insane is that?” She continues, “I have an open investigation with you guys, and I just got my hands put on me by (name censored). It’s not a misunderstanding, sir, and he didn’t have his body camera on. If I said I want to file a complaint, you’re supposed to turn on your body camera.” In a different case, an officer smashed a window during a traffic stop.
The officer then tries to mollify her, saying, “We’ll educate him on that.” Panno then retorts, “Yeah, I mean, he’s already a cop, so it’s a little late for that.” It is only after this that a form is produced, but as soon as Panno looks at it, she says, “Oh, you guys changed them from two days ago, three days ago?” She noted in the subtitles, “Now they gave me the form the officer is supposed to fill out. Asking for ‘BEAT’ and other officer terminology.”
When the officer notes that’s all he has, she clarifies, “This is a citizen complaint form, though. Is that the same as an internal affairs complaint?” Internal affairs complaints usually deal with internal cases, like a dispatcher helping criminals. Panno told her viewers she couldn’t understand the document, but tries to fill it out by asking for clarification. At one point, she even apologizes for being “insufferable.”
Eventually, the right form was found. She noted in the on-screen text, “Then they printed the right form, and it was the size of a shipping label.” It took some more pushing to get copies and extra pages, but eventually, it was done.
Many of her viewers felt the procedure was unnecessarily difficult as a tactic. One TikToker commented, “They make it difficult so you give up.” Another wrote, “This isn’t incompetence, this is intentional.” One viewer expressed support, nothing, “you can file a complaint anonymously. you do not need to identify.” Another user advised, “please contact your local prosecutors office to file an internal complaint!!! They’re being extremely difficult with you at the station.”
If the regular method of filing complaints fails, here is how you can escalate or even bypass it. According to the Office of Law Enforcement Professional Standards (OLEPS) within the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, you can make a referral regarding potential misconduct at any time.
OLEPS accepts complaints from members of the public, and you can even remain anonymous if you choose. You can file a complaint electronically on their website, write a letter to their office in Trenton, or call their hotline.
OLEPS promises that they are committed to ensuring investigations are conducted fairly and impartially. They accept complaints regardless of the complainant’s background and require agencies to accept these reports without needing a sworn statement to initiate the process.
Published: Aug 29, 2026 11:45 am