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Errors in Police Reports

1) Police reports form the foundation of criminal cases presented to district attorneys. Officers take notes at crime scenes which they later type into formal reports. 2) Officers are often pressed for time when taking notes at crime scenes, which can lead to important information being overlooked or reports containing inadvertent inaccuracies. 3) Erroneous police reports have resulted in guilty defendants being released and putting the public at risk, as well as damaging the reputations of officers and their departments. Conducting special training in technical writing for police officers is needed so they are knowledgeable in proper report writing standards and practices.

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Ryan Christian Tagal-Bustillo
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92 views2 pages

Errors in Police Reports

1) Police reports form the foundation of criminal cases presented to district attorneys. Officers take notes at crime scenes which they later type into formal reports. 2) Officers are often pressed for time when taking notes at crime scenes, which can lead to important information being overlooked or reports containing inadvertent inaccuracies. 3) Erroneous police reports have resulted in guilty defendants being released and putting the public at risk, as well as damaging the reputations of officers and their departments. Conducting special training in technical writing for police officers is needed so they are knowledgeable in proper report writing standards and practices.

Uploaded by

Ryan Christian Tagal-Bustillo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Errors in Police Reports

The foundation of the justice system is police reports. Officers' notes at crime scenes, which they
later assemble into reports, create the essential facts of criminal cases presented to district
attorneys (DAs). The District Attorneys' decisions on which cases to prosecute are based on the
police reports they receive from arresting officers.
Unfortunately, the time-honored practice of cops taking notes by hand and then typing reports
several hours later has major consequences. Officers on the scene are frequently pressed to
produce the shortest, most concise notes possible in order to save time. Important information
can be overlooked, and writing can be difficult to read after the fact.
Writing a report based on these abbreviated notes and the officer's personal recollections back at
the station leaves the possibility of mistakes open.
Conventionally drafted police reports may contain inadvertent inaccuracies as a result of
problems like these. At best, an officer who was already pressed for time to complete the report
must return a second time to remedy an error. If the error is not remedied, it might be repeated as
the matter progresses to court. If revealed in court, simple errors like misspelled suspect names,
incorrectly written license numbers, and other typos might jeopardize the DA's case.
In some occasions, erroneous police reports have resulted in the release of guilty defendants
while putting the public at risk. There's also the chance of the report writing officer's and the
department's reputation being tarnished, all because the officer (who never joined the force to be
a typist) made an honest, unintentional error.
Conduct Special Training in Technical Writing for PNP employees

Technical writing is concerned with specific information, usually in the field of science and
technology, and can be found in a variety of formats, including technical documentation,
manuals, scientific papers, and dissertations. Each of these types of writing has its own set of
standards, and in order to produce an article for a scientific publication, for example, one must
understand the norms of the genre, as well as how scientific and technological thought should be
expressed. It doesn't mean you wouldn't be understood differently – although you probably
wouldn't in some situations – it simply means that no self-respecting magazine will publish your
article if it isn't written properly.
The prevalent perception of police work nowadays is that it is all about action and high-speed
chases. However, documentation in the form of police report writing is a less usually recognized
element of police work, but it is one of the most critical tools that a police officer may use to
help them execute their jobs. Writing police reports is vital for a variety of reasons, the most
important of which being the large number of suspects that police officers deal with on a daily
basis. As a result, it is nearly impossible for any police officer to recall every aspect of each case
without taking notes.
That is why technical writing is of such tremendous importance. Thus, the conduct of special
training in technical writing for PNP employees is needed so that are knowledgeable on what are
the patterns in writing such report and what to comes first and comes last. This training will also
equip them to become more literate in writing such reports.

Mishandling of Police Records


In the realm of law enforcement, report writing is critical. While performing their duties, an
officer must be able to accurately document information about those events and deliver it to
those who were not present. The presence or absence of information in these records could
determine a person's guilt or innocence.
Police reports are required of all officers. Officers are graded on the basis of their written reports.
An officer's ability to deliver accurate, detailed, and useful material in a police report is essential
to good police work. Many people make snap judgments about others based on much of the
material in police reports. Officers should include not just what they did in their reports, but also
what they did not do and why.
In conclusion, police reports should be handled with care since these are important documents
that may help the policemen in investigating such crime.

Ethical Issues in Technical Writing

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