Ontario Police College Police Duty Notebooks PDF

www.opcva.ca Evidence 1 Police Duty Notebooks Mike Stern/Rose Kucharuk Prepared By: Presentation Date: September 2023 Version: BCT Version Sept 2023 © Queen's Printer for Ontario, 2018 What you will learn today Police Notebooks • Legal and duty requirements of note-taking, • The purpose of note...

www.opcva.ca Evidence 1 Police Duty Notebooks Mike Stern/Rose Kucharuk Prepared By: Presentation Date: September 2023 Version: BCT Version Sept 2023 © Queen's Printer for Ontario, 2018 What you will learn today Police Notebooks • Legal and duty requirements of note-taking, • The purpose of note-taking, • Who will want to see your notes, • Expectations of you at OPC, • Important aspects, • Getting started on note-taking, • Tour of Duty, Procedures and Investigative examples, • Applying what you learned. 2 Legal And Duty Requirements Origins of the requirement Police Services Act: • S. 42 Duties of a Police Officer • Code of Conduct – Reg. 268/10 • Policing Standards Manual – LE-022 Your Law Enforcement Agency’s Policy Case Law 3 Purpose of Note-Taking Why take notes? Your notes are to aid your memory. • Tour of Duty: the accounting of your workday, and • Procedures to make them clear and consistent, and • Investigations: capturing evidence through your five senses and the inquires of Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How, and other evidence gathering, investigative efforts, capturing your rationale to act (reasonable grounds), your authorities to act, your actions and the actions of others, etc. 4 Who will see your notes? Not just for you…. • Internally: supervisors, other investigators, i.e. Major Case Management, Professional Standards, Freedom of Information Act Coordinator, Records Management, etc., • Judicial Process: Crown Attorneys, Defense Counsels, and Judges, • Outside Agencies: The Special Investigation Unit, Office of the Independent Police Review Director, etc. 5 Your Responsibility Look after your Police Notebook Notebooks are: • the property of your law enforcement agency • they are evidence, must always be secured, and never left unattended • are only for professional purposes. 6 At OPC Establish your good practices You are expected to take notes each workday at OPC in accordance with: • Your law enforcement policy on note taking, and • OPC’s Rubric & Notebook Templates, Notebooks may be inspected at any time by any instructor. Your notebooks may be peer reviewed by your classmates. 7 Taking notes Important aspects Strive to take notes during the incident (contemporaneously) or asap, in chronological order. They must be completed before the end of shift Notes shouldn’t be made in collaboration with other officers (strive always to provide a fulsome independent account) Entries that aren’t in chronological order shall be marked as ‘Late Entry’ (L.E.), cross-referenced to other entries by way of page number and shall reflect the current date and time, with a reason provided 8 At OPC Expectations Treat every class like it is a call for service • Every class: • Name of class • Time of arrival • Class location • Instructor(s) • Academic classes • Also include objectives and homework • Every Scenario • Treat as a late entry 9 At OPC Expectations Additionally: • Assigned details such as student duty officer, flag orderly detail, etc • Meetings with staff members/police service/liaison officer • Workshops What about Electronic Notes? 10 www.opcva.ca Please visit the Virtual Academy www.opcva.ca www.opcva.ca www.opcva.ca www.opcva.ca 11 Hands on Let’s get started…. • Outside or Inside Front Cover & Exterior Spine of your notebook, • ‘Tour of Duty’ notes (to start & end your workday), • ‘Procedures’ of professional note taking, • Investigative note-taking (Evidence captured-5W’s + H, Reasonable Grounds, Authorities, Actions, etc.) 12 Front Cover Example 13 Tour of Duty Example This is where you would document your assigned vehicle and equipment What does your service do differently than this? 14 Procedures Example Tour of duty Examine this example. What has the recruit done well here? 24-hour clock in left margin Error correction by putting a line through the error and initialling it Other items that are well done include: No writing in spine. Utilizing lines and minimizing spacing Time, location, subject, instructor and objectives indicated 15 - The use of black or blue ink - All lines accounted for - Consistent spacing - Spelling & documenting names/DOB/phone/email/a ddress - Not squeezing in information - Penmanship and legibility is good quality Other Items to Consider Always include the date at the top of every page. • Don’t skip pages in your notebook. Indicate your homework. • When you come to the last few pages of your notebook, prepare to start a new notebook and cross the pages out. It is best practice to keep your entire day in one notebook. Some services require an account of 365 days a year. 16 Don’t obscure or write over page numbers. Recommend to circle them. Late Entries Add the additional information. Then, add LE in the left margin and the page number where you noted the time when the event actually occurred. At the time at which the event occurred, make a left margin note with LE (late entry). Also include the page number you want to cross reference where you made the late entry. 17 Date Event Location Investigative Notes Weather Vehicles Dress 18 Investigative Notes Con’t. Vehicle and plate number Noted asking this question and driver’s response. Laying out grounds for arrest 19 Investigative Notes Con’t. Forming reasonable grounds to arrest Placing offender under arrest and telling him why Search incident to arrest 20 Investigative Notes Con’t. Read rights to counsel verbatim DYWTCALN = Do you wish to call a lawyer now? And note the offender’s response to that question verbatim. Reading the caution verbatim. 21 First Officer Contact and Your Notes Lets apply some of what we learned. When do I take out my notebook? 1. Officer safety is always the first priority-keep your hands free. 2. After identifying self, the best question to ask is, ‘Tell me what happened?’ 3. Only when the situation is safe then use it to record information. 22 Homework Assignment • Read the Blue Line article called – Your Backup Memory as Officers found under Evidence 1 on the OPCVA • Suggested reading: the Notebook Rubric Guide found under Evidence 1 on the OPCVA 23