MIDTERM

POLICE REPORT

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the importance of proper note-taking in making a police report.
2. Learn the fundamental steps and contents in report writing.
3. Develop their writing skills in making the report; that is clear, concise and accurate with sufficient details.
4. Learn the different classifications of documents.

Introduction

Nearly half of a police officer’s work involves writing, and because of this, the best arrests will go un prosecuted if the reporting
officers do not have the necessary writing skills to record their actions in a case clearly, concisely and accurately, with sufficient detail.

An officer’s report must document every incident in a complete, clear, and concise manner. Any arrest, follow-up investigation,
prosecution , or administrative action that is to be taken as a result of the report must be initiated, supported, or justified by the
information contained solely within the body of the report.

Consequently, every police report must be able to withstand critical review and legal scrutiny, and must be truthful, unbiased, and
unprejudiced. Moreover, police officers have a moral and legal obligation to investigate all crimes that are reported to them.

WHAT IS A REPORT?

A report is a specific form of writing that is organized around concisely identifying and examining issues, events or findings that have
happened in a physical sense, such as events that have4 occurred within an organization, or findings from a research investigation.

These events can also pertain to a events or issues identified within a body of literature. A report informs the reader simply and
objectively about all relevant issues. There are three features that characterize report writing at a very basic level: a pre-defined
structure, independent sections, and reaching unbiased conclusion.

POLICE REPORT DEFINITION

Let’s say you arrive home from work to find that your home has been broken into. The police arrive and write down everything that
you can remember about the series of events. But what happens to all of that information? It is used to create a police report, a
document that details all of the facts, circumstances, and timeline of events surrounding an incident.

Police reports vary from agency to agency, including the protocol that’s to be followed when completing one; however the general
information and function is relatively the same. The report is written by the responding officer and is turned into the department for
review and filing once completed. Not only does the police report provide a point of reference for investigating officers, it may also be
used by the victim for insurance purposes or by court staff in the event of criminal charges.

USED OF POLICE REPORTS

Police have many different uses, both within the criminal justice system and beyond:

1. Identification of Criminals
- Police reports assist with the identification, apprehension and prosecution of criminals by serving as a source document for filing
criminal complaints, by providing a record of all investigations, and providing a basis for additional follow up investigations.

2. Investigation Record
- Police report aid prosecutors, defense attorneys, and other law enforcement agencies by providing records of all investigation and
serving as source documents for criminal prosecution, as well as documenting agency actions.

3. Court Preparation
- Police reports assist officers prior to or during court appearances by refreshing the officer’s memory before testifying, or preparing to
provide hearsay testimony at preliminary hearings.

4. Civil Liability Assessment

- Police reports are essential for risk managers, insurance companies, and civil litigation attorneys for use in determining potential
civil liability by documenting events such as accidents or injuries on city, county, or state property, workman’s compensation type
injuries, as well as to presenting justification for an officer’s behavior or actions in a civil complaint or lawsuit against the officer.
5. Statistical Analysis
- Police reports assist police and civilian administrators as well as the campus community by providing statistical information for
analysis of crime trends, equipment needs, manpower issues, continued professional training requirements, and assist in the evaluation
of officer performance.

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE POLICE REPORT

On a daily basis, police officers are faced with a variety of events and incidents. At each one, officers are required to make significant
decisions, oftentimes without delay, and while under stress or the benefit of all the facts regarding the situation. For this reason, crime
and incident reports must reflect the details of the specific crime or incident for further reference and use. While the details of every
incident or crime report will likely vary, there are six characteristics that all effective reports have in common.

An effective police report is always:

1. Factual. A police report is an objective accounting of the relevant and observed facts of the case, and any conclusions made by the
reporting officer must be supported by articulated and documented facts. Unsubstantiated opinions or conclusions are never to be
included in an effective report.

2. Accur ate. The decisions and actions taken as a result of the report must be supported by accurate information contained in the
report. If any information is inaccurate, the credibility and reliability of the report will likely be jeopardized. Accuracy is achieved by
carefully, precisely, and honestly reporting of all relevant information.

3. Clear. A police report speaks for the reporting officer when he or she is not present. There should be no doubt or confusion
regarding what happened during an incident or crime, based upon the content of a police report. Clarity in report writing is achieved
by clear and logical organization of information, the judicious use of simple, common, and first person language, and effective writing
mechanics.

4. Concise. Reports should be brief but also contain all relevant information necessary for a complete understanding of the crime or
incident, without additional explanation. should never take precedence over accuracy, completeness, or clarity in report writing.
Brevity should never take precedence over accuracy, completeness, or clarity in report writing.

5. Complete. A complete report will contain all the relevant facts, information, and details that the reader will need to have in order to
have a comprehensive understanding of the crime or incident described in the report. The report is complete when it is a complete
word picture of the incident, there are no questions left unanswered by the reader, officer actions are explained and justified by the
contents of the report, and both supporting and conflicting information is included.

6. Timely. No decisions can be made or actions taken regarding an arrest or request for follow up investigation if a report is not
submitted in a timely fashion.

STEPS IN POLICE REPORT WRITING

Pre-writing

Pre-writing refers to any activity that a writer engages in prior to the actual writing to the draft. In a writing class, activities under this
category include brainstorming or generating ideas. In public safety report writing, this is represented by the acronym GRO which
stands for Gathering, Recording and Organizing Facts.

In the pre-writing stage, the author recommends the use of your own templates to aid you in writing your formal report. Make sure
that your designed templates will answer the 5W's and one H in your report. At least these templates will help you from crafting new
sets of question every time there is an incident report. Likewise, you have ample time to think salient information in every incident
making it easier for you to write the report in the official memorandum format than to write the same from disorganized notes or
worse, from memory.

Gathering of Facts

Before writing your report, you need to be sure that you have the facts.

By facts, we mean the details of the incident or account as they happened and not as they are told by one who was not present at the
scene of the incident. Hearsay and rumors are not facts, and neither are opinions. Various ways to gather facts include field interview
of victim and witness at the scene of the incident, background investigation of suspects and surveillance operation.

Recording and Organizing

Parallel to gathering of facts is data recording. For police report writing, you can refer to pages of your own designed templates for
offenses against person, offenses against properties, vehicular accidents, and complaints or incidents, which may be useful in writing
spot report or other official reports following memorandum format. The template, as explained earlier, serves as essential tool in
recording and organizing information.

Writing and Evaluating

These shall be expounded in separate chapters of this book. Briefly though, with the filled out templates, the writing stage will no
longer be as laborious or painstaking as when there is no organized baseline data gathered in the pre-writing stage. Evaluating, on the
other hand, is the stage in the writing process where you take closer look at the written work both in content and form. Content
evaluation or editing is checking whether the report has the qualities of good writing such as accuracy, clarity, conciseness, objectivity
and completeness. This is also the stage where you add, remove, replace or rearrange word or phrases to exemplify the qualities and
produce report well worth reading. On the other hand, evaluating the form or proofreading focuses on the correct use of grammar,
sentence structure punctuation, capitalization, abbreviation, numbers and spelling.

FIELD NOTES

An officer's field notes are the original source documents used to write a police report. For this reason, if field notes are incomplete,
poorly organized, or illegible, they will be of little use to the officer in writing the resulting police report. For this reason, field notes
should always be taken at the scene, especially when interviewing suspect, victims or witnesses, and whenever the officer wishes to
remember specific details at a later time.

Making your own designed templates in your notebook will help you to avoid more time in recording information. When writing field
notes, officers should consider that field notes are typically more reliable than memory, especially since reports are typically written
several hours after a specific incident or crime has occurred. This time lapse can often cause an officer to easily forget or confuse
certain types of information, especially times, observations addresses, and key words and phrases from statements. Moreover, the
judicious use of field notes can minimize or even eliminate the need to re-contact the involved parties in a case at a later time.

Every event, incident, and crime is different, and for this reason, the facts and information needed by the officer to write a police
report is different. However, field notes should always be able to answer the questions what, where, when, who, how, and why
regarding the incident.

Regardless of how the individual officer decides to take field notes, the following information is a snapshot of the items that should be
included in field notes.
NOTE TAKING AND CONDUCTING FIELD INTERVIEWS

Typically, field notes are obtained from the officer's direct observations and from field interviews with suspects, victims, and
witnesses. The field interview, however, is where the officer will learn the majority of the information about a crime or incident.
Therefore, the statements taken during a field interview are often critical to learning about the specific facts of a case, because the
existence of certain crime elements may only be revealed from the statements of witnesses, victims, and the suspects of a case.

An effective field interview should generally follow the following five step format.

1. Separate the involved parties. This minimizes distractions and interruptions. Separating the involved parties also focuses their
attention on speaking to the officer, rather than

each other, and also minimizes manipulation of witness statements by other involved parties.
Establish rapport. Be courteous, considerate, and patient. Briefly tell the person being interviewed why the interview is being
conducted, and describe the interview process to the individual.

3. Listen attentively.

Ask the person what happened, and allow them to talk about it

Let them explain it in terms that they understand. Be sure to keep the person focused on the main subject being discussed in the
interview. If they begin to get off topic, guide the person back to the subject, and always use active listening skills to encourage the
person to talk. Listen carefully, and pay attention to the details of the incident. Don't take notes at this point in the interview!

4. Take notes/ Ask questions. Ask the person to repeat their account of what happened, but stop the person and ask questions for
clarification, where necessary. Take notes, but write in short, simple statements, highlighting the important thoughts or ideas. Be sure
to obtain accurate identification information for the person at this point, and ask any additional questions that are necessary for
clarification.

5. Verify information. Repeat specific information to the person being interviewed from the notes taken in the previous step, to ensure
accuracy, and give them an opportunity to add facts. Be sure to confirm direct quotes, time relationships, weapons information, and
physical descriptions of suspects. Be sure to verify any changes made in this stage.

It is important to note that while some officers may elect to record an interview with a digital voice or tape recorder, the use of a
recorder may inhibit an individual from talking freely. Also, electronic devices can malfunction or fail, thereby eliminating the
information from the interview. If interviews are recorded, officers should also take written notes as a backup in the event of
mechanical or device failure.

IMPORTANT FIELD INTERVIEW SKILLS

One of the most important skills that officers are required to have while conducting a field interview and taking field notes is
determining the difference between opinions, facts, and conclusions in a statement given by a suspect or witness. Another important
skill is being able to determine what information is relevant to the case or incident.

Opinions are statements that can be open to interpretation, or expresses a belief not supported by the facts of a case, while a fact is a
statement that can be verified or proven by the facts of the case. A conclusion is a statement that is based upon the analysis of opinions
and conclusions, and a conclusion should always be accompanied with the supporting facts and opinions.

Generally, relevant facts typically establish the facts of the case or elements of the crime. Irrelevant facts, on the other hand, usually
furnish details that are not elements of the crime, or provide information that may dilute the facts of the case.

QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY AN EFFECTIVE REPORT

The facts and questions that an officer includes in his or her field notes should typically provide the foundation for an effective police
report. As discussed earlier, an effective police report should always answer the questions who, what, where, when, how, and why
(5W's and 1 H).

If any of the six questions cannot be answered by the officer's report, the report should contain as much information as possible, as the
information can prove to be vital to investigators, attorneys, and other users of the report.

The following table presents examples of the specific facts and information that can be included in the body of the report to help
answer of the six questions. It is not intended to be all inclusive, and used as a guide. Specific crimes or incidents will require certain
information that should be noted by the investigating officer in the report.
FUNDAMENTAL REPORT CONTENT

As previously stated, every crime or incident is different, and as a result, each report every reportsfoul inve certain content itements,
regard es of the cime that wen committed.

The following general content elements are fundamental to an effective report, however, it should be noted that in some crimes or
incidents, a specific element may not be applicable.
1. Initial infor mation. This should establish how the officer became involved with the specific incident and additional background
information. The initial information should also describe the officer's immediate observations and any actions they took upon arrival at
the scene.

2. Identification of the cr ime or incident. Always include the facts that are necessary to show that the specific crime or incident has
taken place. The report should include the common name of the crime, the statutory reference number and the required elements
necessary for the crime to be complete.

3. Identification of the involved par ties. Regardless of the type of report, the report should always identify the reporting persons,
victims, witnesses and suspects, if known. Always include full names, address, home, work and cellular telephone numbers. Include
alternate contact information, such as work or school addresses, email addresses, and their role in the incident.

4. Victim/witness/suspect statements. Summary statements of all involved parties should be taken and direct quotes used, where
necessary. Statements should always include the details of the events, from their own perspective.

5. Cr ime scene specifics/ descr iption. Crime scene specifics are necessary to accurately recreate the scene and events of the crime.
Include photographs, where possible, and include the locations of physical evidence prior to collection. Photographs should be printed
for inclusion with the report, and booked as property as evidence, where applicable.

6. Pr oper ty infor mation. Property information should include the color, make, model, serial number, approximate value, and full
descriptions where possible. Details pertaining to stolen or recovered property, as well as property booked for safekeeping, and
property booked as evidence should always be included in the report, and entered into CLETS, were applicable.

7. Officer actions/obser vations. Include descriptions and observations of all actions related to the incident. If multiple officers
responded to a crime or incident, each officer involved should include a supplement that details their own actions at the incident or
crime, and the supplement should be submitted for inclusion with the master report. All reports, whether a master report or
supplemental report, should be written from the perspective of the writing officer, and detail their own personal actions or
observations.

FIFTEEN ESSENTIAL EMAIL ETIQUETTE RULES:

1. Use a direct subject line.

In many cases, people decide to open an email based purely on the subject line.

Strong subject lines are brief, descriptive, and whenever possible, action-oriented. For example, "Board Meeting moved to Tuesday,
11/21" is a stronger subject line than "meeting date changed."

The importance of having a strong subject line cannot be stressed enough, especially if the email is being used for direct marketing
purposes. Always choose a subject line that will let the receiver know you're addressing their business issues or other concerns.

2. Use a professional email address.

Obviously, having your emails deleted is the last thing you want. One of the best ways to

ensure that doesn't happen is to avoid using a non-branded or nondescript address.

If you are representing a company, you should always use the email address your company has provided for you. This instantly makes
you look more credible and improves email deliverability substantially. Therefore, be prudent about choosing your professional email
address.

3. The "reply-all" button should be used sparingly.

Nobody likes to open or read emails that have nothing to do with them, their department, or their individual responsibilities.

Ignoring unrelated emails can be hard, and the repetitive alerts can be irritating if we're trying to focus on other tasks.

Avoid hitting "reply all" unless you know everyone included on the list really needs to receive the reply.
4. Add a professional email signature

Professional email signatures can lead to higher ROI rates if you're engaged in marketing campaigns. It makes sense to give your
reader additional information about you or your company. Usually, an email signature includes your full name, title, company name,
and contact information.

You can add a little publicity too, but don't go overboard with artwork, links, slogans or quotes. Keep your font, type size, and text
color the same as the rest of your email to set a professional tone.

5. Use professional greetings

It's important to learn how to use professional greetings when it comes to email etiquette.

Be careful when using casual greetings such as "Hey there" or "Hi everyone." While casual, friendly greetings are appropriate in many
types of emails, make sure you know what sort of audience you’re addressing.

6. Be wary of excessive exclamation points.

If you are in the habit of using exclamation points, be careful to limit them when expressing If your enthusiasm or excitement.

Some people tend to overuse this punctuation mark and end up using several exclamation points in the span of a few sentences. This
may make the writer sound overly eager or even immature. Use them sparingly and only when it is really appropriate.

7. Be careful when using humor.

Without the corresponding facial expressions or tone of voice, any humor used over email can easily get lost in translation. In fact, it is
better to rather leave all forms of humor off professional email exchanges unless you know the receiver very well.

Also, something you find personally funny might not be remotely amusing to someone else. In some cases, a humor can even seem
rude or hurtful, so when in doubt, it's best to leave it out.

8. Reply to all your emails.

The dramatic changes we've experienced this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to major transformations in the ways we
conduct business. Our workplace communication is changing dramatically and how we use our email is a perfect example.

It's hard to answer every email you receive, but it's good email etiquette to at least try.

This includes emails that were sent to you accidentally: a reply is not mandatory but it's always good email etiquette.

Even something short will suffice: "I know you're really busy, but I believe you sent this email to me by mistake. I wanted to let you
know, so you could get it to the right individual."

9. Always proofread before pressing send.

Don't depend solely on your standard spell checker. Your email recipients will likely notice mistakes, and while the occasional typo
happens to everyone, repeated mistakes and misspellings can look sloppy.

Just like autocorrect, you can't always trust spell-checkers. That is why Zoho presents to you Zia, our writing assistant, who not only
checks your spellings but also makes contextual corrections.

10. Add the email address after you've composed the message

Want to avoid accidentally sending an email before you've finished typing and proofreading the message? It is good practice to type
out your email first, then add the email address of the recipient when you are ready to send the message.

11. Double-check the recipient addresses

Do your best to be accurate and pay particular attention when you type a name from your contacts list on the "To" line. It's
unfortunately very easy to choose the wrong name, which can be embarrassing for you and the person receiving the email by accident.
Also, make wise use of CC and BCC in email to avoid conversational clutter.
12. Always consider how cultural differences may affect your communication

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach a wide range of people, and it's easy to set up. But it can very easily
lead to miscommunication due to cultural differences, especially when your recipient can't see your facial expression or body language.

If possible, it's a good idea to customize your message to the cultural context of your chosen recipient.

Remember, there will likely be time zone differences you need to take into account as well.

13. Keep your fonts simple and classic.

Every font has its own place and time, but when it comes to business communication it is better to keep your fonts and their relevant
sizes and colors simple and classic.

The most important rule of thumb is that your messages must be easy to read. It is usually best to go for an 11-point or 12-point font
size and an easy-to-read sans serif such as Calibri, Helvetica, or Arial. It may seem boring, but black is the safest and easiest to read
choice as far as color is concerned. Try to keep text highlighting and use of bolding, italics, and underlining to a minimum. These
effects can help make important information stand out, but look chaotic when used too often.

14. Segment your communications

One of the best ways to personalize your communications is to segment your email list to begin with. A segmentation feature is
absolutely something that should come with any email marketing tool that you use.

Segmenting your email lists makes it easier for you to target your campaigns based on your customer groups, which in turn allows you
to make vour messages more tailored to your recipients.

15. Consider your tone

Finally, just as humor may be misconstrued, your writing tone might be easy to misunderstand without the perspective one may get
from hearing your voice. As a result, it's easy to come across as abrupt when you are simply trying to be straightforward.

Read your email out loud prior to sending it. If it comes across as negative or rude to you, it will definitely be perceived that way by
the reader. If you want positive results, remember your basic manners: say "please" and "thank you," and try not to use words that are
overly-negative or dramatic.

TEN ESSENTIAL SMS ETIQUETTE RULES:

1. Do reply promptly.

When you receive a text, try to respond in prompt fashion. “ There is a certain etiquette to being timely vin receiving and an
expectation that the replies will come as soon as possible,” says Post Senning. "At the same time, you're not beholden to your device.
If it's not an appropriate time to reply, just wait and do it later." And speaking of waiting...

2. Don't text during inappropriate moments.

We've all witnessed it - hard-core texters typing messages in movie theatres, during plays, funerals, and religious services. And we all
have that friend who cannot sit through a meal without whipping off a quick text from the table. "The biggest mistake people make is
not thinking about where and when they're texting,
," says. Post Senning. Texting during public gatherings can be considered rude, insensitive and annoying. Would you make a phone
call in such a setting? Probably not, so the same rule applies to texting. If you simply cannot wait, excuse yourself from the movie,
event or dinner table and text outside where you won't disturb others

3. Do keep texts short.

"Texts are a shorter medium of communication, a little bit like an answering machine message," says Post Senning. "If it gets too long,
the text becomes a burden to the person on for the receiver to read. “ If you have a lot to say, break up the message into several texts,
so it's easier
4. Don't text sensitive news.
It's not fun (or polite) to be told via text that your husband wants a divorce. Just ask Katy Perry. In 2011, the singer's then-husband
Russell Brand chose the medium to dissolve their marriage. Similarly, other life-changing news such as being laid off from work, or a
death in the family shouldn't be sent by text either. "Messages with emotional content are better delivered by phone, or in person. You
get more information from the tone and inflection of voice, facial expressions, and body language than you do from the written word,
and there's less chance your message can be misinterpreted, or cause hurt," says Post Senning.

5. Do re-read your texts before sending.

They're fun to giggle at when they're posted to Facebook, but autocorrect errors aren't always a laughing matter when they happen to
you. "Save yourself some embarrassment and show some care for the person you're communicating with by taking the time to re-read
your message before you hit send," says Post Senning.

6. Don't send too many attachments

It's fine to send an important photo or link, but texting too many - especially if they're
risqué or boring — and you might be going too far. "You don't want to be the person who floods people with baby photos or lunch
pictures. You don't want to overwhelm people with stuff they're not interested in, or send anything that might shock or offend them,
" says Post Senning.

7. Don't forget to double-check the recipient

Be extra careful with the autofill function in the text's 'send' field. Typing in the first letters of someone's name and relying on autofill
to do the rest could result in an awkward situation when the wrong James, or Jill receives your message.

8. Do use proper grammar

Your friends, family and co-workers might be in the dark about the latest texting abbreviations, so err on the side of caution and use
correct spelling and punctuation. "Not everyone interprets shorthand well, and you want to make sure that you're understood," says
Post Senning. It's nne to add emoticons or emojis to convey your feelings — just don't go overboard with their use. Too many emojis
can turn your text from endearing to annoying.

9. Don't text too early or late

Some people use their cell phone as an alarm clock, while others have a tone that goes off every time a text is received. To avoid
waking someone up, don't text too early or late. "The rule is 7am to 9pm, but if you know the person well, you can probably push that
range out a little bit," says Post Senning.

10. Don't text while driving — ever!

Drivers distracted by texting often cause fatal car accidents. If you have an urgent need to text, find a parking lot and send your text
from there.

SECURITY CLASSIFICATIONS OF DOCUMENTS:

A. TOP SECRET - Information and material (matter) the unauthorized disclosure of which would cause exceptionally grave damage
to the nation, politically, economically or from security aspect. This category is reserved for the nation's closest secrets and is to be
used with great reserve.

B. SECRET MATTER - Information and material (matter) the unauthorized disclosure of which would endanger national security,
cause serious injury to the interest or prestige of the nation or of any governmental activity or would be of great advantage to a foreign
nation.

C. CONFIDENTIAL MATTER - Information and material (matter) the unauthorized disclosure of which, while not endangering the
national security, would be prejudicial to the interest or prestige of the nation or any governmental activity or would cause
administrative embarrassment or unwarranted injury to an individual or would be of advantage to a foreign nation.

D. RESTRICTED - Information and material (matter) which requires special protection other than that determined to be TOP
SECRET, SECRET or CONFIDENTIAL.

MARGIN RULES:

Top - first page (without printed letterhead), typed letterhead, ¾ inch or 5 roller spaces from the edge of the paper;
Top - second page and succeeding pages, 1 ¼ inches or 7 roller spaces from the top edge of the paper;
Left Margin - 1 ¼ inches or 15 bar spaces;
Right Margin - ¾ inch or 7 bar spaces; and Bottom - 1 ¼ inches or 7 roller spaces.

PROOFREADING
Proofreading may seem time-consuming, tedious, and difficult, but when writing reports where accuracy, clarity, and completeness
are important, proofreading is critical. It is a difficult Skill to master, yet one that cannot be overlooked.

When proofreading a report, special attention should be devoted to ensure that the
following basic questions are answered:

Is the information in the proper order?

Are the correct crimes cited in the report?
Are all crime elements articulated?
Are the facts of the case correct (based on the officer's field notes)?
Is the report well organized?
Is all necessary information included?
Are things said efficiently or too wordy?
Are all conclusions supported by facts?
Are there any gaps in logic?
Are the names spelled correctly?

PROOFREADING MECHANICS

A report's effectiveness and an officer's credibility can be damaged by a report with too many mechanical errors. When proofreading
the reports they have written, officers should look for:

Inappropriate use of nouns, pronouns, verbs, etc.

Vague or confusing language
Incorrect or inappropriate use of words
Gaps in logic or narrative flow
Spelling errors
Inappropriate punctuation
Incorrect use of police, fire or EMS abbreviations Overuse of words, such as "that"

One of the most effective methods for proofreading the content and mechanics of any report is to slowly read the completed report
aloud. When sentences are heard, it is often easier to identify mechanical errors, gaps in logical flow, skewed time sequences,
incorrect verb tenses and cumbersome phrasing.