Examples of racial profiling complaints to the Citizen Complaint Authority this year:

Complaint No.: 03001

Received: Jan. 3

Complainant: Clifford Lindsay Jr., 37, Over-the-Rhine

Allegation: Lindsay was stopped and searched at the corner of Liberty and Race streets Jan. 3 "for no apparent reason." He said Officer Nathaniel Young made a racial remark. Officers gave him a citation for spitting on the sidewalk.

Status: Racial profiling, unfounded; abuse of authority: not sustained. However, agency director Nathanael L. Ford did find that most of the 31 spitting citations issued in 2002 were in African-American neighborhoods, and questioned whether the ordinance was being used as a "punishment tool."

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Complaint No.: 03032

Received: Feb. 4

Complainant: Joan Daugherty, 53, Milford

Allegation: Daugherty alleged she was given a traffic citation because she is white and the issuing officers were African-American. Daugherty alleged three other vehicles driven by black motorists committed the same violations but were not cited.

Status: Unfounded. Officers Kara Graves and Kisha Williams wrote tickets for ignoring a road-closed sign on Evans Street. Williams said she was unable to distinguish the race of driver because of the lighting. There were other violators; however, these occurred while officers were writing tickets for Daugherty and another driver. Milton Cole, who also got a ticket, told investigators: "It didn't matter if anyone was black or white. It just looked like they wanted to catch someone."

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Complaint No.: 03061

Received: Feb. 26

Complainant: Aquilla O. Sanders, 29, English Woods

Allegation: Sanders was shopping at the Kroger store on Harrison Avenue Feb. 22. She felt she was overcharged and went to the customer service counter. After a loud argument with the manager, she was told to leave the store and never come back. Officer Barbara Winstead approached Sanders and said: "You don't want to pay $6 for that chicken, but you are going to pay $100 for a citation." Sanders was charged with disorderly conduct.

Status: Racial profiling, unfounded; abuse of authority, exonerated; discourtesy, not sustained.

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Complaint No.: 03076

Received: March 13

Complainant: Steven L. Wyatt, 30, Over-the-Rhine

Allegation: Wyatt is a city firefighter. Wyatt, his fiancee Brandy Jones and 3-year-old daughter Kamilla were crossing the street at Walnut Street and Central Parkway March 11 when an unmarked police car turned the corner, missing them by inches. Wyatt threw a small juice bottle at the car. Officer Eric Vogelpohl got out and shouted an expletive at least 10 times, Wyatt said. The officer called for backup, and Wyatt was arrested for disorderly conduct. A passing motorist, Joseph M. Laury, "was so incensed at what he perceived to be excessive force and improper conduct" that he filed a third-party complaint, according to CCA reports. Three witnesses say Officer Vogelpohl pulled Wyatt at the shirt.

Status: Excessive force and demeanor complaints sustained; racial profiling not sustained. "The officer's actions of pulling Mr. Wyatt around by his shirt appear to be an angry reaction to a confrontation as opposed to a necessary element of effecting a lawful arrest," the agency found. The authority recommended a reprimand, but police supervisors found that "actions taken by Vogelpohl appear to be within department rules and regulations."

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Complaint No.: 03118

Received: April 14

Complainant: Vista Benton, Springfield Township

Allegation: Benton illegally parked her car in front of a Western Hills nail salon March 15. Officer Douglas Lindle came over to write a ticket; Vista asked for a warning. "The business people made me aware that he was writing warnings all day, especially to Caucasian people," Benton told investigators. When she complained, "Officer Lindle said if I say one more word he would give me a disorderly conduct ticket."

Status: Discourtesy, not sustained; lack of service, exonerated. More than half the 11 parking tickets written by the officer that day were to white motorists. "There is no apparent pattern of discrimination in the issuance of tickets on this day. Officer discretion is permissible in issuance of parking tickets," the agency said.