Essay About Law Enforcement Reports And Use Of Reports

Individual Police Reports
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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 officers 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