Police Report Writing

Police officers have witnessed great advances in their work in many aspects of law enforcement. From improved tactics and weaponry to technology-oriented advances like mobile computers and digital encrypted communications, criminal justice professionals have made significant moves forward in combating criminals and crime. However, as Kurt Nelson reports in Law & Order, "one area often neglected by police officers is how the officer reports on his or her actions" (226). Writing for Police, Karen Hess maintains that "the effectiveness and efficiency of the department is directly related to the quality of its reporting procedures and reports" (43).

There are numerous reasons why police report writing is critical for effectiveness and efficiency of the department as well as protection of the law enforcement officer. The following four reasons are the most significant ones with respect to the importance of good police report writing:

Justification for legitimate use of force.

Minimization of potential litigation against the department and officers.

Improve chances for successful outcome at trial.

Provides an accurate and clear account of incident.

This research will now explore the basics of sound police report writing.

Traditionally police reports were scribbled out by police officers in the "Joe Friday" manner of third-person, objective reporting. Such a style helped to obscure clarity and meaning in po

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r she speaks. The third paragraph describes what the officer did in response to what they discovered in paragraph two. The fourth paragraph describes officer response. The fifth or closing paragraph should provide information with respect to the disposition of the incident. The most significant aspect of any police report is the accuracy of what is written. While brevity and clarity have significant importance to the overall quality of the written report, accuracy is of supreme importance. As Hess argues, "Consider accuracy first because it is essential to effective reports and must be attended to in both the content and the form of the report. The content itself must include all relevant facts, accurately recorded. It tells who, what, where, when, why and how. It is the objective, eliminating opinions and conclusions. Accuracy also includes spelling, capitalization and punctuation" (43). With respect to form, police officers should try to avoid spelling and grammatical errors that confuse the reader. Further, wordiness should be avoided while verbs should be used in place of nouns to maintain brevity. Clarity and readability are extremely important to an effectively written police report. Jargon, large words and l

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