Tell What You Observed

After your interviews, then write down what you observed. If the house has been ransacked, describe the scene in detail. If your victim has been hit, describe the injuries. If the victim swears someone kicked in the front door but you find no evidence to support the claim, you need to write that down too: “I found no evidence to corroborate that the door was kicked in.”

Explain What You Did

The last portion covers what you did while investigating the incident. This includes processing the scene, conducting a neighborhood canvass or any other action material to the investigation. Minor things like handing out an incident number needn’t be documented unless your agency’s policies require it. Since this constitutes the last portion, also include a closing statement to let the reader know you are done. It can be as simple as, “The report was forwarded for further review.”

Don’t Forget These Tips

Don’t answer a question and by doing so create a new one. A very common mistake occurs when someone writes, “I processed the scene with negative results.” It begs the question, “Where and what did you process?”

If you have multiple witnesses, combine the like testimony and discuss the differences. For example, “Mr. Jones, Mr. Hernandez, and Mr. Smith all agreed that the vehicle was a brown compact. However, Mr. Johnson stated it was a green mid-sized car.” This saves you from writing the same thing over and over again.

Work on sentence structure and cut out excessive words whenever possible. Never use seven when five will do. For example, “The victim had no suspect information and desired prosecution,” is short and sweet.

You should also convert elements of the crime into sentences. Your report has to prove what you labeled it. “The victim stated that someone without consent entered her home and stole $500 worth of her property.” In Florida that describes burglary, without having added any extra fluff.

How To Put It All Together

Since style creates structure without locking you into an outline, you can easily combine any section. Here is a simple illustration: “I was dispatched to a burglary over with. Upon my arrival, I met with the victim, Mrs. Jones. She stated someone without consent broke into her home and stole $6,000 worth of jewelry.”

You have easily combined how you got the call and the elements of the crime, and set yourself up for the next part of the report, which is what the victim said. You even informed the reader that it was forced entry without writing a separate sentence.

Sometimes you’ll write a long narrative, and a reader can get lost in the details. Using a short summary paragraph at the end helps tie things up nicely. It highlights the totality of the situation and the outcome.

This type of structure helps new officers remove some of their anxiety. For first responders, the length of our reports works in reverse; the more complicated the call the easier the report.

For example, most recruits are afraid of handling a homicide. In reality it’s one of the easiest reports to write. You arrive, you secure, you contain and then you call out detectives. Upon their arrival you turn everything over to them (assuming your agency works that way). Your biggest role becomes securing the scene. Your report is very short, while a detective’s may near book length.

On the flip side, a simple incident like someone hitting someone else might seem like it takes forever to write. This is especially true if you have multiple witnesses and victims on both sides. I have seen prosecution packets of this nature almost an inch thick.

Keep Your Report Structured

Report writing is relatively simple when you follow the structure of how you got the call, what people said, what you observed and what you did. This particular style of report writing allows you to tackle any incident as a first responder. If you’re a supervisor, don’t tell your officers what to write or even how to write. Instead, show
them what your agency needs and create a writing style. Give them some structure and let them fill in the blanks. They may just surprise you.

Amaury Murgado is a special operations lieutenant with the Osceola County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office. He is a retired Master Sergeant from the Army Reserve, has 23 years of law enforcement experience, and has been involved with martial arts for 37 years.

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