The president of the Chattanooga Housing Authority’s Citywide Advisory Board and other CHA residents filed a complaint this week alleging harassment by a Chattanooga police officer, records show.

The complaint against Officer Edward Tinney was filed with the Chattanooga Police Department’s office of Internal Affairs.

Residents filed the complaint after Officer Tinney arrested 23-year-old Undra Smith for criminal trespassing Sunday at the East Lake Courts housing development, even though Mr. Smith showed the officer identification that he was a resident, said Jesse Lawrence, president of the Citywide Advisory Board.

“How can a person be arrested for criminal trespassing when he’s on the lease?” Ms. Lawrence said Tuesday.

Officer Tinney said Tuesday he would “love to respond,” but that he could not do so during an ongoing investigation.

Capt. Mike Mathis of the police department’s internal affairs division said he reviewed the complaint against Officer Tinney and passed it on to the officer’s supervisor to investigate.

Supervisors are asked to investigate matters in which an officer may not be guilty of committing a crime or violating policy but of acting rudely, Capt. Mathis said.

Ms. Lawrence said Officer Tinney came into her house without knocking and called other police officers into her home to take Mr. Smith into custody on the criminal trespassing charge.

Mr. Smith declined comment, but his mother, Doris Smith, said it was the second time her son had been arrested on a criminal trespassing charge at East Lake Courts. But he’s been on her lease at least since 2002, when the Chattanooga Housing Authority relocated the family from the former Spencer J. McCallie Homes site, Ms. Smith said.

She said Mr. Smith pleaded guilty when first arrested for criminal trespassing in October 2008. She said she would have advised him not to do so, but she was not in town at the time.

Her son never had been in any legal trouble before that criminal trespassing charge, Ms. Smith said. His sentence was only two days of community service, she said, but the accusation is on his record.

Ms. Smith, who is unemployed, said she borrowed $62 to post her son’s bond after he was charged Sunday.