Police Report Writing

Purpose of Police Reports

Report writing is an important part of police work that is often overlooked
A well-written report can help a prosecutor get a conviction.
A poorly written report may lead a jury to doubt an officer's competence.
Poor grammar in a report can raise liability concerns related to an incident

Skills for Law Enforcement Officers

Skills associated with writing are often not considered as important as defensive tactics, physical strength, decision-making, or firearms proficiency.
A considerable amount of writing is required in law enforcement work, in patrol, investigations, and custody.

Report Audience & Content

Reports are used for years in criminal investigations, prosecutions, and incarceration.
Reports are read by supervisors, law enforcement, jail administrators, prosecutors, defense counsel, judges, jurors, wardens, and the media.
Reports must be clear, concise, and contain the crime's elements so a prosecutor can prove guilt.
Law enforcement writing is often cluttered, overly formal, unclear, and imprecise.

Police Writing Style

A longstanding culture of police writing can instruct officers to use too many words and write poorly.
Customary police writing styles can be like teaching a second language, instead of using standard English.
Writing is vital for communicating and maintaining records, especially for secondary investigations or court cases.

Definition of Writing

Writing is recording/communicating ideas through visual marks, allowing review, revision, and forecasting.
Visual marks must be ordered in a specific manner to be meaningful and provide the intended shared meaning.
A report is any documentation recorded on a departmental form, or medium (computer disks), maintained as a permanent record which is technical writing.
Law enforcement reports maintain official records of events/incidents, including actions officers took, couldn't take, or failed to take.

Field Notes

Initial report information is gathered in the form of notes.
Field notes assist in providing information for reports and to dispatch in regard to providing BOL's, confirming a person’s identification, running stolen property, call status, field interviews, and events.
Note taking must comply with agency policy and notes may be discoverable.
Notes should be short, concise, and kept to a minimum.

Investigative Report Elements

Reports must include the following six elements:
Who was involved?
What happened?
Where is the occurrence?
When was the incident?
Why did the incident occur?
How did the incident happen?

Fundamental Report Content Elements

Initial information includes how the officer noticed the arrestee and what led to the stop and detention.
Initial information is delicate, because the rest of the case depends on legal probable cause.
Date, time, and location of the incident are also critical.
If the offense is not reported with actual times and dates, this becomes important should the case go to trial.
The police officer should enter the actual date and time of the initial offense.
Establish elements of a crime, the "who, what, where, why, and how" to prosecute a defendant.
If a crime cannot be proven using those elements, there is no case.

Defense Strategies Based on Report Quality

A defense attorney will use the non-existence of the evidence and the basic elements of the crime against you because of a poorly written report that did not have the main elements of the crime which may result in a non-prosecution.
It's important to identify all parties listed in the report, such as victims, suspects, and witnesses.
Victim/witness statements are descriptive statements based on comments the officer has solicited from crime victims and nearby witnesses, typically written in a looser, paraphrased style.

Crime Scene Narrative

There should be with a detailed description of the scene, including anything unusual or out of place and any weather/environmental conditions.
Include the evidence observed, and its location, condition, or anything remarkable about the item.
Correspond to any identification markers used to number or label the items of evidence.
There should be an inventory of any evidence recovered and information on the disposition of the evidence: "One small plastic baggie of marijuana, removed from the suspect's right front pants pocket. Impounded at the station on Tag #1234."
Actions the officer took to apprehend the person are explained, and include what the officer may have seen/heard that led him/her to make an arrest.

Grammar in Reports

Basic writing elements of reports include:
Spelling and the use of jargon
Verb tense
Active and passive voice construction
Pronoun agreement
First versus third-person writing
Gender neutrality
Excessive verbiage and legalese
Accuracy, conciseness, and clarity

Spelling

Whether you are a good speller or a mediocre one, use a standard paper bound dictionary if one is not sure how something is spelled.
Do not leave things spelled incorrectly - look it up in a dictionary.
Avoid using jargon - specialized terms with specific meanings associated with a particular occupation or profession.

Verb Tense

A verb shows some sort of action, run, jump, hit, kick, etc., or suggests a state of being, is, are, was, were, am, and so forth.
Three major tenses tend to be used in report writing:
Present
Past
Future
Present tense is a construction describing a current event or occurrence: I am notifying my sergeant about the incident.
Past tense is a construction describing something that has occurred already: I notified my sergeant about the incident.
Future tense is a construction where something is described as occurring later or at some time in the future: I will notify my sergeant later today.

Active vs Passive Voice

Active voice allows the reader to understand who did what to whom.
When the subject of a sentence is in action (acts or performs some activity) the verb is in active voice, like: Officer Borkowski used his handcuffs to restrain the violent inmate [active voice].
When the subject of the sentence is the recipient of some action, the verb is in the passive voice, like: Acting violently, the inmate was restrained with handcuffs [passive voice].
Write reports in active voice because such sentences tend to be clear, concise and provide correct and accurate information.

Pronoun Agreement

Pronouns are words that are used to take the place of, or to refer back to nouns.
The pronoun used should agree with the noun it is replacing, and allows us to speak about people, places, and things without unnecessary repetition.
Watch for awkwardness in sentences using pronouns.

First vs Third person

Law enforcement officers must take ownership of their statements by using the first person in their reports.
First person uses “I” to describe what he or she observed, did, or said, and what was told to him or her by others.
(Third person) The undersigned officer arrived at the scene in time to see both inmates being pulled apart by other officers
(First person) I arrived at the scene in time to see both inmates being pulled apart by other officers

Gender Neutrality

Gender neutrality refers to language that neither stereotypes either sex nor appears to be referring to only one sex when that is not the writer's intention.
Use the proper pronoun for each specific sex when the gender of the individual is known and relevant in the writing.
If both males and females are involved in the action or activity being described in the sentence, use a plural gender-neutral pronoun to account for both.

Verbiage

When writing in a passive voice, it is easy to use too many words or write in a confused or verbose manner, termed excessive verbiage.
Law enforcement report writing does not need to be artistic, dramatic, or lyrical.
Reports should be detailed, but only insofar as this detail is relevant to describing necessary events, people, and elements of a crime or incident.
Problem related to words used in the report is the use of legalese (legal sounding or associated terms), and they should be clear and obvious.

Accuracy & Factual Statements

Law enforcement reports should include clearly worded, accurate facts about what is going on, who is present, and what was observed.
The six basic elements that need to be addressed in an officer's report are who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Anything beyond these factual statements, such as inferences, suppositions, and personal opinions, should be kept separate or labeled to avoid confusion by a reader.
Reports should always contain statements about where information has been derived, and from whom.

Conciseness & Clarity

Reports should not be verbose in their construction.
Be mindful about writing long, unwieldy and run-on sentences that are not only grammatically inaccurate but also very hard to follow.
Do not write in such an abbreviated or stilted fashion that sentences do not provide sufficient information to accurately convey the facts, or the necessary elements of a crime or incident.

Reading and Writing

Reading and practice writing go hand in hand when it comes to good writing.
The more you read, the better your writing becomes; expanding your vocabulary and ability to choose better and more precise words when writing reports.
The more you write, rewrite, and edit your writing, the better a writer you will become.
Always proofread your reports, and never rely solely on a computer’s grammar and spelling check tool.

Organizing information

Reports should be written in an organized manner as to create clarity for the reader.
Writing in a chronological order creates this organization.
Accuracy involves detail, so be sure sentences are specific enough to give the reader a clear picture.
Sentences should be specific enough to give the reader a clear picture and avoid things that are not professional.