Section 3.1 Flashcards
Police officer reports are what?
Permanent record
The report brings everything together.
TRUE
As an officer you are involved in a lot of cases it might be years later when you need to testify to remind yourself of the particular case you will need to refer back to what?
Report
If you do not write it down, it did not happen. If you do remember it, it is going to be ___________.
Attacked by the defense council
Prosecutor step one is what?
What are we going to do here.
Prosecutor step one questions:
Are we going to change this guy or not?
If we decide to charge him, what are we charging him with?
Look at the _______ because it is a summary of all the evidence that we have,
Report
The _________ uses the report to decide if they are going to prosecute and what they are going to charge a person.
Prosecutor
The report officially gets entered into evidence and is a summary about what happened. The report is the best overall and they use it a lot. Who is they?
Judge and Jury
Who uses your report to see if you are doing your job and for promotional decisions?
Department/ Supervisors
Every time you have a fender bender the police take a report and who uses it to determine who is at fault?
Insurance Company
Insurance companies can use the report to determine whether to pay out or not. They look at your case very close. True or False
true
Common mistake in reports is using _______ that people do not understand .
Jargon/ slang
The victim punched the offender and then he grabbed the gun. This is an example of what?
Unclear sentence
Who grabbed the gun?
You can include conclusions and assumptions but you need to ___________.
mark them
Example, I saw an offender stumble many times. I stopped the offender at the corner. I asked him his name and where he was coming from and he said Moe’s in slurred speech. The assumption is what?
Moe was intoxicated
You need to be clear if you make an assumption and it needs to be identified.
Example, I assume the man was intoxicated and I tried a breathalyzer and he refused.
Yes
Is there a difference in your opinion and other people stating their opinion?
Yes
Are you allowed to put someone’s opinion down as a witness?
Yes
If the witness calls the defendant stupid can you put it down as an opinion?
Yes
You can out down other people’s opinions but not your own. True or False
True
A gun was found at the scene. What scene and where at? What type of gun? Who found the gun? This implies what?
Incomplete information
Lots of simple mistakes like There, their, they're Commas should've, could've, would've These are examples of what?
Grammatical errors
They will not respect you if you do not know how to spell simple things. True or False
True
Step one in organizing a report is what?
Outline
What makes organization and writing so much easier?
Outline
Events in your report need to be in what order?
Chronological order
First, I arrive at the scene at this time and date in my patrol car and the weather was like this. The first thing I observed was this and this. I talked to the witnesses first and then I tased to this person.
This is an example of what on a report?
chronological order
Should you write in first person on a report?
Yes
Write a police report like you are telling a narrative and do not use fancy words to try and entertain the reader. True or False
True
Use as many details as possible if it is relevant to the case. This is what?
Narrative order, with details
If someone is a witness to a car crash the color of their shirt is not relevant to the case. True or False
True
Do not say the witness was tall. If the witness says this ask for a more detail for the witness to say the person was 6’4. True or False
True
What happened.
content
How it was given.
Form
Grammatical English, chronological order, one front, separate sections with a bold heading. These are examples of what?
Form
Do not say the person could not walk without stumbling.
Instead say,
the person did not walk without stumbling
This is an example of what?
Conlusionary language
Is is possible to know what somebody could or could not do?
no
All you can observe is what the person _____________.
did or did not do
Never use could not. Always use did not. True or False.
True
