Synopsis of the New Police Report Manual
Synopsis of
The New Police Report Manual Devallis Rutledge
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
A Field Training Officer (FTO), Rutledge (Author), is on patrol with a patrol officer. He has to type his first police report and is not doing a good job. His officer was disappointed at what he had read in his report; he’s going to show the rookie how it’s done. The officer’s report was not only 50% longer, but full of jargon. The rookie cop stated, “Why do we write like that?” “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it,” replied the officer. After years of being a cop and writing real police reports, Rutledge became a prosecutor. After numerous trails, Rutledge was still boggled at the way police reports were written. So he decided to ask other people in the field of criminal justice and the explanation was the same, “that’s the way we’ve always done it, and no one has bothered to ask why.” The problem is the style is all wrong and everyone is trained to write this way. Rutledge states, “Police reports should be written in the way that you would normally communicate information.” Police reports need to be correct, unclouded and believable otherwise law enforcement personnel will undoubtedly lose the case. During a trial police reports are designed to help the officer out not the criminal; consequently, the court has trouble understanding the reports due to the style, too much jargon, excess big words, and awe and not enough communicating what you know. Rutledge states, “Work smarter not harder.”
THE BEST APPROACH
Rutledge breaks police reporting down. There’s an artificial way to write and a natural way. By writing what comes natural to you, you are less likely to make mistakes, use words incorrectly or worse yet, having trouble understanding your own report come trial day. Rutledge uses the analogy, police have a reason for pulling behind a car (new way) and not in front of a car (old way) when stopping a vehicle. It’s just more safe, and the officer
The New Police Report Manual Devallis Rutledge
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
A Field Training Officer (FTO), Rutledge (Author), is on patrol with a patrol officer. He has to type his first police report and is not doing a good job. His officer was disappointed at what he had read in his report; he’s going to show the rookie how it’s done. The officer’s report was not only 50% longer, but full of jargon. The rookie cop stated, “Why do we write like that?” “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it,” replied the officer. After years of being a cop and writing real police reports, Rutledge became a prosecutor. After numerous trails, Rutledge was still boggled at the way police reports were written. So he decided to ask other people in the field of criminal justice and the explanation was the same, “that’s the way we’ve always done it, and no one has bothered to ask why.” The problem is the style is all wrong and everyone is trained to write this way. Rutledge states, “Police reports should be written in the way that you would normally communicate information.” Police reports need to be correct, unclouded and believable otherwise law enforcement personnel will undoubtedly lose the case. During a trial police reports are designed to help the officer out not the criminal; consequently, the court has trouble understanding the reports due to the style, too much jargon, excess big words, and awe and not enough communicating what you know. Rutledge states, “Work smarter not harder.”
THE BEST APPROACH
Rutledge breaks police reporting down. There’s an artificial way to write and a natural way. By writing what comes natural to you, you are less likely to make mistakes, use words incorrectly or worse yet, having trouble understanding your own report come trial day. Rutledge uses the analogy, police have a reason for pulling behind a car (new way) and not in front of a car (old way) when stopping a vehicle. It’s just more safe, and the officer