The core of any police report is the complete narrative of the incident that contains all the elements and details of the crime and written chronologically. It is essential that the report writer is able to lay the legal foundations of the actions proceeding from the incident. The report must be able to show that the actions taken has been reasonable, that the legal rights of the culprits were not violated, and that there is probable cause to proceed with the case.
Basically, a police report is a blueprint that is used during trial of a case. Arguments brought up in court will be based on what has been written. Hence, it is essential that the report is able to convey pertinent information, such as physical evidence, collected and discovered during investigation.
A police report is a written narrative of the step-by-step or chronological sequence of an event that transpired in a given time, date and place. It is also defined as a written document prepared after a crime or incident is reported to police or any other law enforcement agency. It typically includes the following:
names, status and addresses of the victims
names and addresses of witnesses
the classification and the elements of the offense
the facts and circumstances surrounding the offense
names, status and addresses of the suspects, should the identity be positively established; otherwise, their descriptions as provided by the victims and/or witnesses
As mentioned above, the police report is essentially the blueprint of a case that it used during trial. Everything written in the report will be argued on or against by the lawyers involved in the case. An excellent police report could help in getting a conviction. Otherwise, the case could be thrown out after a defense lawyer successfully argues that a "clown" wrote the report.
Many police reports begin with written notes. They are often taken down in a pocket-sized notebook, often called a "tickler." No one's memory is perfect, not even trained police officers. So, a notebook is most helpful in ensuring that the police officer can have accurate information regarding the facts of the case.
At the beginning of an officer's career, they may find during report writing that they have written so much trivial information in their notes that they ended up missing important details. With experience, the police officer improves their notes and starts including more information that are relevant to the case.
Field notes do have a limited value in court as evidence. Nevertheless, it would not hurt to save field notes for future reference.
As has already been mentioned, the 5W's and 1H are important in report writing. Answering all these questions help the report writer create a comprehensive document that is able to provide useful and complete information.
The police report should include all the parties involved in the case. They must be identified by their complete names and personal circumstances, including aliases and their roles, e.g. suspect, victim, or witness.
Do not use abbreviations. They might seem like this can save you time, but they might give the case a turn for the worse at court.
Avoid the use of pronouns. Instead, use nouns whenever possible to keep the clearest picture of what took place and who did it.
Another part of the "who" in a report is being able to identify the mentioned persons and find them again. As such, the report writer must obtain the phone numbers and addresses for both the home and place of work, date of birth, ethnic origin, descriptions, occupation, and identifying numbers such as a driver's license ID number.
"Who" should also include the property owner of the location of the incident, who took the victims or suspects to the hospital, who treated the injured, and who can describe them in court.
The "what" question leads to the heart of the crime. This is where the police officer should include the elements of the crime and the modus operandi. All the "what" relevant to the crime should be included in the report, especially the "what happened."
Details of the "what" should be included, such as the elements of the crime positively identified and all the relevant descriptions for future reference. Statements made by the relevant parties should also be included.
When a particular action involves the violation of special laws, the police officer would do well to make sure that all the elements of the crime are documented and that the suspect is charged with each offense, whether it is a violation of the penal code, special laws, or even local ordinances.
Some questions that may be answered during the report writing could be: What damages or injuries occurred as a result? What clothing was the suspect wearing? What exactly did he say and what did he do? Did he have particular speech patterns or physical abnormalities? What type of business or property was involved? What did the suspect use for transportation?
Of course, depending on your case, your questions will vary and will not always include the examples above.
Details about the time is incredibly important in any case brought into court. Hence, it should be written down as carefully and as accurately as possible.
This detail could make or break a case as it enables the prosecution to show how an incident could have possibly happened and eliminate alibis. If there is a major discrepancy in the times and dates stated in the report, the case could be dismissed or turned right out of court.
For future law enforcement purposes, careful noting of this detail can help in crime prevention as it could help law enforcement officers establish crime patterns in their jurisdictions.
The police report should describe in detail where exactly a crime took place. This is a critical piece of information when determining the legal jurisdiction of the court, as well as the area of responsibilities of the law enforcement agencies involved.
The information about the location should be as detailed as possible, i.e. it should include the number, street, barangay, city or municipality, province must be indicated. It must also be noted whether it is a residential or business place.
For robberies and similar crimes, the point of entry has to be described. For traffic accident reports, the point of impact must be located.
Basically: Why did the crime take place?
This might be the most difficult question to answer as this goes into the core of the crime. Without a completed investigation and/or a confession from the perpetrator, a police officer can only make proposals or suggestions on why the crime happened.
It might be a simple question, but it could show the motive of the suspect and establish his state of mind. From there, the investigators could then fully establish the elements of the crime and/or any circumstances relative to the incident.
This question answers the part of the "modus operandi" requirement of the report. Information on the exact steps taken by the perpetrator to commit the crime are described here. For instance: How did the suspect approach the scene of the crime? How did the suspect use his weapons? How did the suspect announce his demands?
Additionally, there is a need to indicate the "how's" pertaining to the information gathered. That is, how did the police officer manage to get hold of the information being reported. For example, a report on a robbery could state: Investigation conducted discovered that the suspect entered through the unlocked kitchen door. Through this, the report writer discloses how the information was obtained and, at the same time, show the court that the information was not obtained illegally.
The following mechanics of a police report are highly suggested:
Remember to use proper capitalization. It is used in, but not limited to, the following:
the first word of a sentence
proper nouns and adjectives derived from proper nouns
the names of the days of the week, month, holidays and religious days
common organizational terms
Depending on the content of the report and the nature of the case, other types of words might still require capitalization, so do not be careless in your writing.
In general, numbers zero through ten are spelled out while anything above ten is written as figures. Figures are also used in the following:
dates
all numbers, if two or more related numbers are used in the same sentence
measurements, such as time, money, distance and weight
percentages
mixed numbers
However, note that numbers used as a first word of a sentence must be spelled out along with the shorter of two adjacent numbers and the words million and billion in even amounts.
Additionally, decimals must not be used with even amounts and fractions.
As previously mentioned, abbreviations must be avoided as much as possible. Do not abbreviate the following:
common words such as department (i.e. as dept.) or organization (i.e. as org)
compass points
units or measure
names of the days of the week nor the months in the year
cities or provinces
On forms and in tables, units of measure may be abbreviated if they occur frequently, but should not use periods, i.e. use "cm" instead of "cm." when the relevant measure is in centimeters.
When writing initials, use a period after each letter but do not add internal spaces. For all-capital abbreviations on the other hand, do not use periods nor internal spaces.
The following is a refresher on how to properly use some of the different types of punctuation marks.
Apostrophe ' Used to show connections of one or more letters, one or more words or figures in a number, show possession, and to show plurals of numbers, letters and words discussed
Brackets [ ] Used as parentheses within parentheses, to correct a mistake in a direct quote, to indicate explanation or one's own comments without quotation
Colon : Used after a statement followed by a list, after a statement followed by a clause that extends, explains or amplifies the statement, after the salutation of a business letter, to separate the hours from minutes when indicating time, and to separate parts of a citation
Comma , Used to separate the day of the month when indicating the date, to set off words or phrases that suggest a break in thought, to set off first, second, no, yes and other similar words when they introduce a sentence, to set up groups of digits in large numbers, to separate unrelated numbers in a sentence, to set off words that explain or define other words, to set off phrases and dependent clauses that add to the main thoughts of a sentence but are not essential to it, to separate long coordinate clauses of compound sentences, to set off coordinate phrases modifying the same noun, between parts of a sentence that suggest contrast or comparison, to indicate omission of one or two words, to separate identical or similar words in a sentence, and to separate adjacent words that might mistakenly be joined when reading a sentence
Dash – Used in place of or between numbers or dates, before a summarizing statement introduced by all, this, or similar words, before a repeated word or expression, to emphasize or define a start of a sentence, to indicate an aside or a point of view of the speaker, to suggest halting or hesitant speech, and to indicate a sudden break or interruption within a sentence
Ellipses ... Used within a quotation to indicate places where a word or words have been omitted and at the end of a quotation to indicate words omitted before the period
Exclamation Point ! Used after a word, phrase or sentence that expresses strong or sudden feeling, to emphasize a command or strong points of view, and to show sarcasm, irony, or amusement
Hyphen - Used to mark the division of a word at the end of a line, to join word parts, and to separate words
Period . Used after a sentence, after a command given without emphasis, after initials, after an abbreviation or part of many abbreviations, and after each number or letter that begins a heading in an outline
Parentheses ( ) Used around explanatory material of a sentence when this material has no essential connection with the rest of the sentence, to enclose sources of information within a sentence around numbers, letters that indicate subdivision of a sentence, and around figures which repeat numbers written out
Question Mark ? Used after a direct question, after a statement followed by a question, after a word that indicates a question
Quotation Marks " " Used to indicate exact words of a speaker, around each part of a direct quotation when explaining words come between the parts, enclose quoted words or phrases within a sentence, around titles, around a word or phrase explained or defined by the rest of the sentence, and around a word to which attention is called
Semicolon ; Used between parts of a compound sentence when they are joined in by conjunctions, before a conjunction connecting independent clauses when either clause contains commas, after each clause in a series of three or more clauses
Underline Used in the name of any book or complete volume, the name of a magazine or periodicals, any foreign word that is not commonly used in English, and any word considered not for their grammatical meaning but as words
Virgule / Used as a dividing line in dates, fractions and abbreviations, when recording bibliographical information and to indicate the end of lines in a title or subtitle
Upon completion, the report writer should carefully read the police report purposefully to check the following:
Elements of the Offense
Inherent Circumstances
Probable Cause
Specific Terminologies
Custodial Rights
Suspect's Statement
Witness's Statement
Grammar and Spelling
If any one of these are not done properly or reported correctly, the case could be dismissed before it could even get to court. Hence, it is vital that the report writer double-check all these important factors before submitting a report.