Fundamentals of Law Enforcement Reports and Written Communications
Definition of a Report: A permanent written record that communicates important facts to be used in the future.
Categories of Reports:
Administrative Reports: Focus on the routine internal functioning of the agency or department (e.g., personnel policies, grievances, reporting procedures, training opportunities, retirement benefits, equipment requisitions).
Operational Reports: Focus on the field activities and official actions of law enforcement officers. The five primary types are:
Incident / Miscellaneous Service Reports
Crime Reports
Arrest Reports
Crash / Traffic Accident Reports
Supplemental Progress / Follow-Up Reports
Uses of Reports:
Examining past events and preserving essential facts.
Keeping officers, supervisors, and administrators informed.
Continuing investigations and coordinating departmental activities.
Preparing court cases and providing courts with relevant factual evidence.
Serving as a basis for plea bargaining (often termed "trial by police report").
Evaluating officer performance and planning future municipal/departmental resource allocation.
Providing statistical data and supplying information to insurance carriers, media, and citizens.
Audience Analysis: Reports are read by supervisors, command staff, prosecuting attorneys, defense attorneys, judges, jurors, city officials, reporters, victims, and citizens. Writers must communicate clearly so readers who were not at the scene can visualize exactly what happened, when, and how.
Reader-Friendly Writing Principles:
Avoid police jargon, bureaucratic legalese, and unnecessary abbreviations.
Use plain, standard English as it would be spoken naturally.
Avoid referring readers to information recorded "above" on a form; if a detail is essential to the narrative flow, repeat it rather than forcing the reader to break concentration.
Common Problems in Police Reports:
Confusing, ambiguous, or overly complex sentence structures.
Inclusion of unsubstantiated conclusions, opinions, and assumptions.
Extreme wordiness, redundancy, and heavy reliance on jargon or technical shorthand.
Missing, incomplete, or inaccurate information.
Spelling, mechanical, punctuation, and grammatical errors.
Impact of Well-Written Reports:
Saves agency time, reduces typing/copying expenses, minimizes rewrites, and increases prosecutorial approvals, guilty pleas, and conviction rates.
Protects officers and departments against civil liability, civil rights lawsuits, and claims of excessive force.
Enhances professional credibility, establishing the officer as skilled, objective, and meticulous.
Characteristics of an Effective Report: Content and Form
Content vs. Form: Content refers to what is said (substance and facts); Form refers to how it is written (mechanics, organization, and grammar). Both are equally critical.
Essential Characteristics of Content:
Factual: Must contain provable statements. Statements are classified into three types:
Fact: A statement that can be proven (e.g., "The vehicle was traveling at 45m.p.h. in a 30m.p.h. zone.").
Inference: A conclusion drawn from reasoning or observed facts (e.g., "The driver was apparently intoxicated."). Inferences must be supported by articulated facts and clearly labeled using qualifiers such as apparently or it appeared.
Opinion: A personal belief or preference (e.g., "Leather jackets look cool."). Opinions have no place in operational police reports.
Avoid Conclusionary Language: Do not substitute interpretive labels for objective descriptions. Replace conclusionary terms with concrete descriptions:
Replace "refused" with exact quotes of the suspect's words.
Replace "assaulted" or "attacked" with specific physical actions (e.g., "struck the victim twice in the face with a closed right fist").
Replace "nervous" or "hysterical" with observable physical behaviors (e.g., "crying, trembling, and screaming 'Help me!'").
Replace "furtive movements" with precise physical descriptions (e.g., "stuffed a small brown paper bag under the driver's seat").
Accurate: Requires precise dates, times, names, spellings, addresses, telephone numbers, quantities, measurements, and descriptions. Avoid vague quantifiers such as a few, many, several, frequently, or tall.
Objective: Non-opinionated, fair, and impartial. Attained by using denotative words (objective meanings, e.g., cried) rather than connotative words (emotional overtones, e.g., blubbered or screamed), and by including all relevant facts regardless of whether they support or contradict the officer's initial hypothesis.
Concise: Every word must count. Eliminate redundancies (e.g., replace "green in color" with "green"; "square in shape" with "square"; "at the present time" with "now"). Conciseness does not mean omitting necessary facts, articles (a, an, the), or prepositions.
Clear: Only one logical interpretation is possible. Uses concrete details, keeps modifiers close to the words they modify, uses diagrams/sketches for complex scenes, avoids obscure abbreviations, and uses short sentences organized into focused paragraphs.
Mechanically Correct: Adheres to established rules of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
Standard English: Uses proper grammar and standard written English rather than informal colloquialisms or slang.
Legible and On Time: Neatly written, printed, or typed, and submitted within established departmental timeframes.
The Five-Step Report Writing Process and Principles of Clear Writing
The 5-Step Process (G-R-O-W-E):
Gather the Facts: Investigate, observe, interview victims/witnesses, and interrogate suspects.
Record the Facts Immediately: Take thorough, legible field notes in ink in an official notebook.
Organize the Information: Arrange facts chronologically into structured outlines and paragraphs.
Write the Report: Construct narrative paragraphs using standard English, active voice, and first person.
Evaluate the Report: Edit for content (factual accuracy, completeness, objectivity) and proofread for form (grammar, mechanics, spelling, punctuation).
Principles of Clear Writing:
First Person: Refer to yourself as "I" rather than using third-person bureaucratic phrasing like "this officer," "the undersigned," or "this reporting officer."
Active Voice: Structure sentences so the subject performs the action (e.g., "Officer Jones found the weapon in the bushes") rather than passive voice where the subject receives the action (e.g., "The weapon was found in the bushes by Officer Jones"). Active voice is clearer, more direct, and less wordy.
Exceptions for Passive Voice: Permissible when the doer of the action is unknown, when the receiver of the action is the primary focus, or when naming the doer would be improper.
Modifier Placement: Modifiers must be placed immediately adjacent to the words they modify.
Misplaced Modifiers: Separated from the intended word, causing confusion (e.g., Incorrect: "He gave the gun to his partner that he bought." Correct: "He gave the gun that he bought to his partner.").
Squinting Modifiers: Placed between two words, making it ambiguous which word is modified (e.g., Incorrect: "The officer decided at that moment to shoot." Correct: "At that moment, the officer decided to shoot.").
Dangling Modifiers: Modifying a word that is not grammatically present in the sentence (e.g., Incorrect: "Upon arrival, the victim told her story." Correct: "Upon my arrival, the victim told her story.").
Pronoun Reference: Pronouns (he, she, it, they) must refer unambiguously to a single specific antecedent noun. If ambiguity exists, repeat the proper noun.
Parallelism: Use matching grammatical structures for parallel ideas in a series (e.g., Incorrect: "He likes running, swimming, and to ride bikes." Correct: "He likes running, swimming, and biking.").
Possessive Pronouns: my, mine, our, ours, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, their, theirs, whose (Note: Possessive pronouns never take an apostrophe).
Reflexive Pronoun "Myself": Use myself only after using I or me (e.g., "I myself checked the door"). Incorrect: "Officer Jones and myself responded."
Who vs. That: Use who or whom when referring to human beings; use that or which when referring to inanimate objects, animals, or organizations.
Prepositional Rule: Use whom directly following a preposition (e.g., "To whom it may concern"; "The suspect with whom I spoke").
Subject-Verb Agreement:
Verbs must agree in number (singular or plural) with their true subjects, ignoring intervening descriptive phrases.
Singular subjects joined by and require a plural verb.
Singular subjects joined by or or nor require a verb that agrees with the closest subject.
Indefinite pronouns (each, everyone, someone, everybody, nobody) take singular verbs.
Collective nouns representing a single quantity, time, weight, or distance take singular verbs (e.g., "Tenmiles is a long distance").
Adjectives, Adverbs, and Negation:
Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns; adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (typically ending in -ly).
Good is an adjective; well is an adverb (e.g., "He did a good job"; "He drove the car well").
Real is an adjective; really or very is an adverb.
Avoid double comparatives (e.g., "more quicker") and double negatives (e.g., "didn't see no one"). Words such as hardly, scarcely, barely, and but are negative in meaning.
Articles: Do not omit articles (a, an, the) in written reports. Use a before consonant sounds and an before vowel sounds.
Sentence Structure:
A complete sentence requires both a subject and a predicate.
Sentence Fragments: Incomplete sentences lacking a subject, predicate, or capable of standing alone. Three common types: split predicates, -ing word groups, and dependent subsentences introduced by signal words (because, after, since, when, although, if).
Run-On Sentences: Two independent clauses joined without proper punctuation or conjunctions. Correct by: (1) splitting into two sentences, (2) adding a comma and a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so), or (3) using a semicolon.
Capitalization Rules: Capitalize proper nouns, specific names of people, racial/ethnic/religious groups, specific geographic locations, official department titles when preceding a name, days of the week, months, holidays, specific street names, and trademark names. Do not capitalize general titles, directions (north, south unless referring to a specific region), seasons, or general words.
Numbers: Spell out numbers under 10 or any number that begins a sentence. Use figures for numbers 10 and above, exact dates, times, street numbers, page numbers, highway numbers, percentages, dimensions, and speeds (e.g., "55m.p.h.').
Punctuation Guidelines:
Commas: Use between main clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions; after introductory clauses/phrases (unless 5 words or fewer); to separate items in a series (omitting the optional Oxford/Harvard comma before and in basic list formats); around nonrestrictive (nonessential) interrupters; and between parts of dates and addresses.
Semicolons: Use between independent clauses not connected by a conjunction, or to separate items in a complex series that already contains internal commas.
Colons: Use after business letter salutations, between hours and minutes in 12-hour time (10:15\text{ a.m.}), and to introduce formal lists or long direct quotations.
Direct Quotations: Enclose exact spoken words in quotation marks. Place periods and commas inside closing quotation marks; place colons and semicolons outside.
Italics / Underlining: Use for titles of books, magazines, newspapers, court cases, movies, ships, and foreign words.
Hyphens: Use with compound numbers (twenty-one to ninety-nine), unit modifiers before nouns, dates, phone numbers, and prefixes ex-, self-, all-, and suffix -elect.
Evolution, Organization, and Objectives of Police Field Operations
Origin of Patrol: Derived from the French patrouiller ("to tramp around in the mud"). Originally evolved from night watchmen, citizen volunteers, and the system of "hue and cry" in early England and colonial America.
Historical Eras of American Policing:
The Political Era (1830s–1930s): Characterized by political patronage, corruption, lack of professional standards, sale of promotions, and widespread use of physical coercion ("third degree"). Documented in the 1931 Wickersham Commission Report.
The Reform / Professional Era (1930s–1980s): Pioneered by August Vollmer (Father of Modern American Policing; introduced radios, fingerprints, juvenile bureaus, college requirements) and O.W. Wilson (championed motorized patrol, preventive patrol concepts, and strict administrative control). Characterized by professional detachment, reliance on automobiles, rapid radio response, administrative centralization, and a quasi-military structure. Resulted in tactical efficiency but created public isolation and community alienation during the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s.
The Community Era (1980s–Present): Shifted focus back to decentralization, foot/bicycle patrols, proactive problem-solving, community partnerships, and addressing the root causes of crime and disorder.
Impact of Federal Initiatives: The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 created the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) and Law Enforcement Education Program (LEEP), injecting over 9billion dollars into research, technology, computerization, higher education, and training from 1968 to 1979. Created the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).
Organizational Structure: Quasi-military command hierarchy (Sheriff/Chief, Deputy Chiefs/Commanders, Captains, Lieutenants, Sergeants, Corporals/Senior Officers, Patrol Officers). Sheriff's departments hold countywide jurisdiction, manage county jails, provide court bailiffs, and in some states act as coroners or tax collectors.
Eight Primary Objectives of Field Operations:
Prevent Crime: Proactive patrol and visible presence.
Repress Crime: Suppressing active crime at hot spots through targeted enforcement.
Prevent Delinquency: Working with youth, school resource programs, and target hardening.
Promote Community Involvement: Establishing active partnerships (Community-Oriented Policing).
Reduce Traffic Collisions: Traffic direction, speed/DUI enforcement, and collision investigation.
Assure Public Peace: Maintaining order at assemblies, rallies, and public gatherings.
Solve Problems and Plan for Crises: Proactive hazard abatement and disaster planning.
Primary Field Activities: Routine patrol/observation, preventive attendance at gatherings, benevolent/community services, business/property security inspections, regulatory/licensing inspections, responding to service calls, animal protection, traffic control, preliminary investigations, evidence collection, arresting offenders, report writing, and testifying in court.
Patrol Modes, Tactics, and Resource Allocation
Modes of Patrol:
Foot Patrol: Highly effective in dense business districts, shopping malls, parks, and high-density residential areas. Enhances face-to-face contact, reduces fear of crime, and builds public trust. Tactics include fixed posts, line beats, and random foot sweeps. (Daytime: walk near the curb to be visible; Nighttime: walk near building walls for cover/concealment).
Automobile Patrol: Most widespread, cost-effective, and versatile mode. Acts as a mobile police station equipped with computers, radios, weapons, and forensics kits. Requires variable, unpredictable driving patterns (spiral, zigzag, quadrant, cloverleaf) and frequent exits from the vehicle to engage the public.
Bicycle Patrol: Combines the mobility of a vehicle with the accessibility of foot patrol. Ideal for parks, shopping centers, parking structures, and dense residential complexes. Uses 24-speed mountain bikes, specialized safety helmets, and Gore-Tex protective apparel.
Motorcycle / Scooter Patrol: Highly maneuverable in congested traffic, ideal for speed and parking enforcement, parades, and escort duties.
Horse (Mounted) Patrol: Excellent for crowd control at rallies and stadium events, search-and-rescue in rugged terrain, and community public relations.