Other officers complained about NC town's police

SPRING LAKE, N.C. -- Current and former officers complained about problems in a North Carolina town's police department more than a year before two sergeants were arrested and the police chief resigned. The Fayetteville Observer reported Sunday that a town alderman in Spring Lake acknowledged that letters of complaint were sent to the town manager. But Alderman James O'Garra said officials were told that the chief said the letters were baseless. Anonymous letters sent to the town manager and other leaders between October 2007 and February complained of abuses of power by some officers. The newspaper reported that the complaining officers ultimately sent letters to the State Bureau of Investigation, which arrested the two Spring Lake officers last week. (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)