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CRIMINOLOGY REVIEW CENTER

REVIEW IN POLICE INVESTIGATIVE REPORT WRITING

* REVIEW OF GRAMMAR

Noun – names a person, place, thing, quality or condition. Briefly, it is a name word.
e.g. persons, books, schools, plants, nations, pencil, suspect, policeman.

Kinds:
(1.) Common noun- a class or group of persons, places or things. As shown in the
example above.
(2.) Proper nouns – particular or specific name of persons, places, things.
e.g. Baguio City, Ara Mina, Birth Certificate, M-16, Jesus Christ, etc.

Pronoun – used instead of a noun. e.g. she, he, they, it, their, these, this, those, whoever, whomsoever,
etc.

Personal Pronoun – indicates the person of the sentence. As in;

1st person – person speaking. e.g. I
2nd person – person spoken to. e.g. You
3rd person – person spoken of. e.g. she, he, it
NOTE: Generally police reports and other reports are in the 3rd persons.

Verbs – are action words. It denotes tenses. e.g. all helping verbs; am, is, are, was & were.

The third person of a verb is formed by simply adding s or es. e.g. dance – dances, kill – kills, etc.

While in the case of Regular Verbs – to form its past tense, add d or ed.
e.g. aggravate – aggravated, connect – connected, recite – recited, etc.

Irregular Verbs – form its past tense by changing its form. e.g. all helping verbs, write – wrote,
buy – bought, seek – sought, etc.

Adjectives – words that modifies nouns. e.g. cop – honest cop, image – sweet image, documents –
questioned documents, figure – tall figure, etc.

Adverbs – modifies verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. e.g. brutally committed, sincerely said, honestly
done, etc.

Antonyms – are words with opposite meanings. e.g. leave – stay, long – short, etc.

Homonyms – words with similar sounds but with different meaning and spelling.
e.g. buy – by, borne – born, still – steel, dear – deer, dye – die, dyeing – dying

Synonyms – words with similar meanings but of different sounds and spelling.
e.g. home – abode, similar – the same, faster – quickly, brutal – cruel, etc.

Linking words – words that bridge the idea of a previous paragraph to another.
e.g. hence, finally, otherwise, furthermore, so, yet, etc.

Punctuation – is the customary little marks that determine whether a sentence is clear or has a doubtful
meaning.

Kinds;
* Period, question mark, exclamation mark, comma, semicolon, colon, quotation marks,
apostrophe, parenthesis and hyphen
* POLICE REPORT

* Concepts/ Definitions:

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 It is any written matter prepared by the police involving their interaction with the community.
 It is an exact narration of facts discovered during the course of investigation which serves as a
permanent written record for future reference.
 It is a permanent written record of police activities classified as informal and formal which
communicates important facts concerning people involved in criminal activities.

* Types/Classifications;
1. Informal Reports – is a letter of memorandum or any one of many prescribed or used methods
of communications, in a day-by-day police operations. It carries three items besides the text
proper, the data submitted, subject, and person or persons to whom submitted, and it contain
many items of administrative importance along with the subject matter of the text. Most police
reports are placed in this category.
2. Formal Reports – suggest a full-dress treatment, including cover, title page, letter of
transmittal, summary sheet, text, appendixes, and sometimes index and bibliography.

* Other Types of Informal Reports:

 General Orders – used to publish matters relating to the modification of the skeleton of the
organization, shifting of functions from one command to another, changes of territorial
jurisdiction of police precincts, and those that requires execution of policies of the
administration.
 Special Orders – used to announce appointments of personnel, whether original or
promotional, reinstatements, rank promotions, salary increases, transfers, designations,
administrative fines and punishments, resignations, retirements and dismissals.
 Numbered Memoranda – it contains directives of general concern to, and for compliance by, all
units and offices on specific subjects concerning various phases of external and internal police
administration.
 Circulars – utilized in the publication of law, ordinances, executive orders, republic acts,
administrative orders, opinions and other valuable information which serve as convenient
guides and references for members in the performance of their official duties.
 Memoranda – used for the dissemination of specific orders for implementation/compliance by
certain units or individual members, usually of temporary nature or lasting for a certain period
only. This is also utilized for the publications of letters or appreciation and other
communications from various government and/or private offices and individuals.

* Values and Uses of Police Report

 It serve as the raw materials from which record systems are made;
 It is written to serve as part of the component of the record system, the direct relationship
between the efficiency of the department and the quality of its reports and reporting
procedures;
 It is written to guide police administrator for policy-formulation and decision-making;
 It is written to serve as a gauge for efficiency evaluation of police officers; and
 It is written to guide prosecutors and courts in the trial of criminal cases investigated by the
police.

* Classification of Investigative Reports

1. Initial Report – is an advance information on a new or fresh case assigned to an investigator. It
is written and submitted immediately after having conducted the initial investigation of the case.
2. Progress Reports – are the result of the follow-up investigations of the fresh or new case. It is
written and submitted every time or whenever any development or progress is accomplished in
the follow-up investigation.
3. Final Report- is written and submitted whenever the case is solved and classified as closed. It
is categorized as solved and closed when the offender is finally arrested, the evidence
gathered to warrant prosecution and witnesses were located to testify for trial.

* Five Basic Steps in Writing Reports;

1. G – Gather the facts.
2. R – Record the facts.
3. O – organize the facts.
4. W – Write the report.

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5. E – Evaluate the report by;

(a.) Editing
(b.) Proofreading

Explanations
 Gather the facts – by conducting thorough investigation by means of interviewing the
witnesses and interrogating the suspect.
 Record the facts – immediately and accurately in a notebook and not in memorary.
 Organize the facts – by arranging the sequence of facts and events in an outline form.
 Write the report
 Evaluate the report – by editing wherein the answer to the five W’s and 1 H are factly
answered, and by proofreading through assertion of the correctness of grammar, spelling,
appropriate applications of punctuations, capitalization, sentence structure and paragraph
construction.

Qualities of Good Report Writing:

 Factual – because the report’s content are all based on facts, taken form one or any or all of
the investigator’s five senses, that of sight, smell ,taste, touch and hearing, thus it can be
proven.
 Complete – means reporting all the facts which were discovered in the course of investigation.
Hence, any relevant and pertinent information must be reflected in the report.
 Objective – means presenting all facts with appropriate words, free from the writer’s opinions,
propaganda or emotional bearings.
 Clear – means that the report should be as simple and direct as possible. The subject or
objective, or purpose of the report should be clearly stated.
 Relevant – in the sense that the report should relate exclusively to the stated objective of the
report. However, if another topic or matter is to be introduced in the same report, as a result of
the follow-up investigation of the original case, the presentation or inclusion of the newly
discovered facts should be closely related and the relationship should be made clear.
 Brief – this can be attained by avoiding sensationalizing the facts, which is the inclusion of
unnecessary details not related to the case under investigation. A report can be brief if the
facts are unified and coherent.
 Accurate – means the contents of the report must be based on facts, which are known through
the use of any or all of the five senses; sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.
 Up-to-date – meaning reports should be submitted on time and possibly according to schedule.
Hence, it should be current as of the time it is needed.
 Fair – which can only be done through the avoidance of formulated preconceived theories that
could possibly lead to twisting of the real facts that could affect the report. And this can only be
done by keeping an open mind.

QUESTIONS:

1. It is a name word that can only be used as a subject of a sentence.

a. pronoun b. noun c. verb d. common noun ans. B
2. What is missing in the sentence? “The investigator is _____.”
a. noun b. verb c. adverb d. adjective ans. B
3. They are necessary in the sentence, since they show whether the sentence is clear or has a
doubtful meaning.
a. subject b. punctuations c. verbs d. paragraphs ans. B
4. All are categorized as police reports EXCEPT one,
a. Initial b. Secondary c. Progress d. Follow-up ans. B
5. This statement is INCORRECT, except, the rest are all correct.
a. A police report that carries lies or half truth statements, is still a police report.
b. A police report can be submitted as time allows.

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c. Accurateness of a police report can be based partly on the use of our senses.
d. Adverbs are modifiers. ans. B
6. It explains best what a police report is.
a. daily operational occurrences
b. exact narrations of facts
c. police records
d. reaffirming what took place ans. B
7. Supply the correct form of verb; “I am not as good today, as I _____yesterday.”
a. am b. was c. were d. did ans. B
8. The identity, particularly and specificity of a noun, makes it a,
a. sentence b. proper noun c. subject d. predicate ans. B
9. To avoid repetitions of nouns, we use,
a. a verb b. a pronoun c. a common noun d. a proper noun ans. B
10. Per categories of reports, we classify police reports as,
a. routine reports c. on-the-spot reports
b. informal reports d. regular reports ans. B
11. SPO1 Solomon Matiyaga was promoted to the next rank by his Commanding Officer, on the
strength of his recommendation. He gave a blow-out to his friends. Three months passed and he
was still receiving the same salary. What form of communication is missing?
a. memorandum c. special order
b. approval by his CO d. written confirmation ans. C
12. A final police report can only be submitted, and the case considered closed and solved when
suspect was arrested and charged, witnesses are willing to testify in court, and,
a. police investigator was summoned to appear in court.
b. statements taken were corroborated by witnesses
c. evidence were gathered and preserved for the prosecution of the case.
d. Judge to handle the case was already appointed. ans. C
13. All statements are incorrect, EXCEPT,
a. the relevance of the police report depends on how it relays the exclusive objective
b. verbs are modifiers
c. keeping an open mind in reporting, makes the report fair
d. sometimes report writers should result to one’s opinion. ans. C
14. A general order carries all these directives EXCEPT,
a. rank promotion c. skeletal modification of the organization
b. retirement benefits d. compliance to directives ans. C
15. These words are _____ e.g.; brake – break, bail – bale, buy – by, die – dye, and dear- deer. They
are similar in sound but different in meaning and spelling.
a. vocabularies b. antonyms c. homonyms d. phrases ans. C
16. They bridge ideas from previous paragraph to another.
a. conjunctions b. articles c. linking words d. paragraphs ans. C
17.. Nouns can only be modified by;
a. adverb b. verb c. adjective d. a modifier ans. C
18. Doer of action in a sentence.
a. noun b. pronoun c. verb d. adverb ans. C
19. They have the same meaning, but of different sound and spelling.
a. vocabularies b. homonyms c. synonyms d. words ans. C
20. _____ reports are results of follow-up investigation on a given criminal case.
a. initial b. on-the-spot c. progress d. final ans. C
21. The statement is INCORRECT.
a. Pronouns are substitutes for nouns.
b. Adjectives and adverbs can only be used as modifiers.
c. Verbs are action words.
d. Antonyms are words with opposite meanings. ans. D
22. Regular verbs form its past tense by simply,
a. changing its form c. adding d or ed to the last letter
b. adding ing after removing y d. retaining its form ans. C
23. Adverbs can only modify, verbs, another adverb and, _____.
a. noun b. pronoun c. adjective d. predicate ans. C
24. Which word has the wrong spelling.

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a. accessories b. embezzlement c. malisious d. affidavit ans. C

25. These statements are correct, EXCEPT,
a. Police reports can serve as raw materials from which record systems can be adopted.
b. Police reports likewise serves as a gauge for good police performance.
c. Police reports make police investigators efficient in their jobs.
d. Police reports can be used for future reference. ans. C

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