![◼ How?
◼ How was the crime or offense committed?
◼ How did the suspect flee the area (on foot, in a vehicle
[description or license plate number], and direction of
travel)?
◼ How many victims, witnesses, and suspects were involved in
the crime or offense?](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/module13reportwriting-220804174530-4c6cc09c/85/Module-13-Report-Writing-pdf-52-320.jpg)
Module #13 Report Writing.pdf
- 1. Chapter 3 Writing Effective Reports ◼ Hess/Orthmann/Cho, Criminal Investigation, Eleventh Edition. © 2017 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
- 2. ◼ Report Writing in Criminal Justice ◼ Criminal justice professionals write countless reports as part of their day-to-day job responsibilities. ◼ Well-written reports document actions, provide information or data, facilitate investigations, and showcase the professionalism of the writer. ◼ By contrast, a poorly written report creates an inaccurate portrayal of the competence level of the writer.
- 4. ◼ Report formats vary from agency to agency, depending on the mission of the agency and what types of incidents and investigations that agency is charged with conducting. ◼ Thelayout for these reports typically includes a standard set of questions that must be answered: the who, what, when, where, why, and how regarding an incident.
- 6. ◼ Reports are permanent records of important facts of a case to be used in the future and are a crucial and necessary part of police work ◼ Reports are used to: ◼ Examine the past ◼ Keep other police agencies informed ◼ Continue investigations
- 7. ◼ Prepare court cases ◼ Provide the courts with relevant facts ◼ Coordinate law enforcement activities ◼ Refresh a witnesses memory about what he or she said occurred ◼ Refresh the investigating officer’s memory during the trial ◼ Provide information to insurance investigators
- 8. ◼ Reports are read by: ◼ Other officers ◼ Supervisors ◼ Attorneys and judges ◼ Jurors ◼ City officials ◼ Insurance adjustors and investigators ◼ Citizens ◼ Reporters
- 10. EFFECTIVE REPORTS ◼ The effective report writer attends to both content and form because they are equally important in a well written report ◼ An effective report is factual, accurate, objective, complete, concise, Clear, grammatically and mechanically correct, written in standard English, organized into paragraphs and written in the past tense, uses the first person
- 12. ◼ THE WRITING PROCESS ◼ Gather Information ◼ Record and write down details ◼ Sort Information ◼ Organize Outline ◼ Rough Draft-Evaluate proofread ◼ Final Draft-proof read
- 14. ◼ Good Report Writing: ◼ Accurate-exactly what happened ◼ Complete: all necessary information ◼ Concise: necessary essential information, no opinions ◼ Organized facts: chronological and complete ◼ Understandable: appropriate words ◼ Neat ◼ Timely
- 16. ◼ Writing style: ◼ Abstract: He was tall ◼ Concrete: he was approximately 6 feet tall ◼ Opinion: The man looked drunk ◼ Factual: Smelled alcohol, stumbled, slurred speech
- 18. ◼ Reports in Law Enforcement ◼ The most common types of law enforcement reports include the following: ◼ Offense or incident report ◼ Arrest report ◼ Supplemental reports
- 20. ◼ Offense or Incident Report ◼ ◼ Offense or incident report-most frequently prepared ◼ Virtually every department has its own unique or personalized form for reporting an offense or incident. ◼ The information required to complete these forms is basically the same.
- 21. ◼ This preliminary report is completed by the investigating officer and is used to document all crimes and investigations ◼ In addition to the basic information, these reports also identify the victim(s), witnesses, suspects, informants or reporters, and any assisting officers and provide addresses and contact information for these individuals
- 22. ◼ The use of the fill-in-the-blank or open portions for the offense or incident report to collect needed demographic and statistical data allows the investigating officer to focus on details in the narrative section. ◼ The narrative is the most critical part of any offense or incident report. ◼ It is an important part of any sound offense or incident report and should be clear, concise, complete, and correct while addressing a detailed account of the incident.
- 24. ◼ The investigating officers should construct a narrative that tells a story, including all the main players and their actions during the investigation and their testimony regarding their observations, as well as a detailed description of the crime scene and any evidence collected. ◼ The information contained in the narrative should be in chronological form and should allow the reader to envision the scene and follow the investigation through the facts as presented.
- 25. ◼ Arrest Report ◼ Arrest reports share many commonalities with offense or incident reports, with fill-in-the-blank or open sections focused on the date, time, and location of the arrest, along with specific demographic information regarding the person or persons arrested. ◼ However, the information in these reports is used to support probable cause for an arrest and must be complete in documenting facts and evidence.
- 26. ◼ Law enforcement officers involved in an arrest must know the accurate code, charge, and/or statute number to include on arrest reports because an incorrect one can jeopardize the case. ◼ An arrest report should be clear, concise, complete, and correct. ◼ Law enforcement officers must ensure that the needed facts to support an arrest are included.
- 28. ◼ Unlike most offense or incident reports, arrest reports will be reviewed by prosecutors and judges to ensure that probable cause was present to warrant the arrest. ◼ Officers can put themselves and their agencies at risk for a civil lawsuit if the arrest report is questionable and does not fully address the investigation process.
- 29. ◼ Arrest reports can appear in newspapers and in courtrooms. Therefore, you want to ensure that you provide all relevant information and that your report is well written so that you do not find that the arrest is invalidated because of missing details. ◼ You want to be viewed as a competent professional. If your reports are poorly written, your reputation will suffer—as will your agency’s reputation.
- 31. ◼ Using the chronological approach for organizing your report ◼ Your report should begin with a paragraph giving the date and time of the incident and the type of incident and describing how you became involved. ◼ Your second paragraph should discuss what you were told by the victim(s) and any witnesses (if applicable), using a separate paragraph for each individual involved in the incident. The third paragraph should explain what you did based on the information you received.
- 32. ◼ And the final paragraph should explain the disposition of the case. The advantages to following the chronological approach are that you can use a storytelling model to discuss the incident in the way it happened, the reader can easily comprehend the information put forth in this approach, and you use a systematic sequence of events to report the incident.
- 35. ◼ Ask yourself the following questions as you review your incident report: ◼ Is the description of the incident accurate? Does it give specific details that are both factual and correct? ◼ Are all elements of the incident properly identified and explained? Did you provide explicit and concise information? Did you include all essential information? ◼ Is your report well organized? Did you organize the information chronologically?
- 37. ◼ Did you include all necessary information to answer the questions who, what, when, where, why, how, and what action was taken? ◼ Are your conclusions supported? Did you include a full description of the actions on which you based your conclusion? ◼ Is your report relatively free of errors? Did you use the proper department form or format?
- 39. ◼ Field Notes and Note Taking ◼ Every offense or incident report, arrest report, or supplemental report begins with field notes taken by the officer or investigator. ◼ These notes are vital to the completion of reports as they contain pertinent information to answer the questions of who, what, when, where, why, and how ◼ Criminal justice professionals on every level have been instructed to take notes about any offense, incident, accident, or event they investigate. ◼ The starting point for every effective report is the field notes you took from the point you arrived on the scene until the assignment was completed. ◼ Good field notes are vital to the preparation of a thorough and inclusive report. So you should be prepared to take notes.
- 41. ◼ Guidelines for the Note-Taking Process ◼ In addition to having your proper equipment (spiral- bound notebook in the size and type that best suit your needs, along with an ink pen or two), you should think about the basic and primary questions you need to ask and/or answer: who, what, when, where, why, and how.
- 42. ◼ Who? ◼ Who is the victim(s)? ◼ Who is the suspect(s)? ◼ Who are the witnesses? ◼ Who is the informant(s)? ◼ Who are the other officers on scene (if applicable)? ◼ Are any emergency medical personnel on scene? If so, who are they?
- 44. ◼ What? ◼ What type of offense has occurred? ◼ What type of action has occurred or is occurring (in the case of a domestic disorder or neighbor dispute, etc.)? ◼ What behaviors are you observing? ◼ What weapons do you see? ◼ What damage has occurred (if any)? ◼ What was the victim’s routine (if applicable)? ◼ What property is missing (if applicable)?
- 46. ◼ When? ◼ When did this offense take place, or when was the crime discovered or reported? ◼ When did you (the officer) arrive and depart? ◼ When did the suspect flee the scene or leave the area (if known)?
- 48. ◼ Where? ◼ Where was the offense committed (specific address)? ◼ Where are the victims, witnesses, and suspect(s) now? ◼ Where are the hiding places of suspect(s)? ◼ Where is the suspect’s residence?
- 50. ◼ Why? ◼ Why was the offense committed? (CAUTION: You may not have and/or may not be able to discern a motive at this point in time.) ◼ Why were the victim and suspect(s) in this location? ◼ Why did the suspect choose this victim and this time to commit this offense?
- 52. ◼ How? ◼ How was the crime or offense committed? ◼ How did the suspect flee the area (on foot, in a vehicle [description or license plate number], and direction of travel)? ◼ How many victims, witnesses, and suspects were involved in the crime or offense?
- 54. References ◼ Criminal Investigation: Hess/Orthmann/Cho, Criminal Investigation, Eleventh Edition. ◼ Effective Communication in Criminal Justice ◼ Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporate ◼ Author: Grubb 2019