Individual Police Reports

indicated in other chapters, administrators use law enforcement reports

when making decisions about departmental policies and missions. Individual

police reports form the basis for decisions by policy makers. At the other end

of the spectrum is the use of reports by officers when they are testifying in court. This

aspect of report writing is examined in detail in Chapter 8. (As noted earlier, the accompanying

CD has actual police reports that may be reviewed.) Although court testimony

is critical in convicting the offender, however, it is only one aspect of report

writing. Law enforcement reports are used by individual officers in a number of ways:

They are the principal source of information in conducting investigations, they provide

the basis for transferring cases from one officer to another without loss of valuable information,

and they are an accurate reflection of the individual officer's training, skill,

and capabilities.1

Reports are important at all levels in law enforcement. Many types of reports

must be made. Each has a designated purpose. These various reports mandate different

responses and efforts by the police officer who is writing them.2 In addition, each

law enforcement agency has its own particular rules and regulations for report writing.

This profusion of rules, jurisdictions, and reports makes it difficult to set forth requirements

that apply to each department and report. Certain basic principles,

however, do apply to all law