When a person works as a law enforcement officer, there are many challenges and obstacles
that they will have to face during their careers. Knowing how to take notes and do reports are a
must for them. Thorough documentation must be done from everything from traffic violations to
a felony crimes, extreme care must be taken when doing all reports. There are very high
standards that have been set for officers when it comes to documenting things and filling out
reports. The information needed to complete both misdemeanor and felony investigations, along
with explaining the significance of accuracy in preparing these reports, will all be covered in this
assignment. We will also compare and talk about the differences between internal and external
statements. In this paper, it will also be discussed about having a biblical worldview and how
that helps when working in law enforcement. If we think about what the Bible tells us in Isaiah
1:17, “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the
widow’s cause.” That scripture makes me think about how working in law enforcement is doing
some of the things that the Lord asks of us, as far as helping others, looking out for others, and
helping keep the laws in order.
In the beginning weeks of this class, we learned how the severity of a misdemeanor property
case is all determined by the value of the property involved. Every state has distinct laws that
specify the precise dollar amount of lost or stolen property for pursuing criminal charges. Even
though the amount may change from state to state, the dollar amount for the property will still be
needed for documentation during an investigation. The responding officer is the one responsible
for taking notes and providing a narrative while recording a investigation along with all the
reports and inquiries. Crimes involving property must include an extra page, called a property
continuation/supplement or inventory sheet (Morris & Merson, p. 129). Additional information
that needs to be in the report is the property’s item number, amout, brand, model, description,
serial number, value, and images if they are available.
A misdemeanor property crime is just one example, but each inquiry will start with the same
assumptions. In a inquiry, it must provide answers to the six essential inquiries: who was
involved, what occurred, when it happened, where it happened, why it happened, as well as how
the events played out. So it doesn’t matter how serious the crime is, all investigations should
include a chronological narrative and answers to those six important questions.
Felony offenses can be divided into two main categories, however it is not a requirement.
Crimes against individuals and crimes against property both can fall under either catergory. Also,
like I previously stated, each state has laws that specify how serious a crime must be, and all
officers should be aware of or have access to these laws in the state which they work. Also when
writing a report, all the details and events need to be put down in the order in which they were
done in. They wouldn’t want to get in a courtroom and have every one completely confused by
their report because nothing was in order on it and it was almost unreadable on top of that. In the
documentation you also would put all the details that you have on everyone that was involved in
criminal offenses, along with all the detailed information about the victims, including injuries,
photos, measurements, and comments. In these type of cases, the severity of the crime committed
can be determined by the extent of the victim’s injuries. Also if the victim later discloses more
injuries, the crime may be classified then as a more serious charge. In your inquiry, there must
also be all the statements from the victim, the suspect, and all of the witnesses that were
involved. There also needs to be a rapport done with the person delivering the statement. In order
for you to be able to get a good, clear one, the person must be coherent, and the officer drafting it
needs to really dig deep to verify the person’s accuracy and story. When these of cases go up for
review, these cases will more than likely be examined more closely (Morris & Merson, p. 145).
The statements will be contested at the trial, and the documenting office will be required to
explained to the jury the conclusions that were reached during the investigation. The quality of
your report is basically what determines how well you do when it goes to trial. If the responding
officer takes his/her time and carefully completes their reports, then they should never have to
worry about when it goes to court.
Prison officers should know how to do the same duties as a patrol officer, considering it
doesn’t matter where a crime happens, a report has to be done and statements must be recorded.
Now a report that was done within a correctional facility, either jail or prison, is referred to as an
internal statement (Morris & Merson, p. 194). These kind of reports are made when any incident
involving a inmate occurs, such as, a firearm gets discharged, any kind of inmate injury, or a
suicide attempt happens. Also, the statements in these reports should be like the ones we
previously discussed and should provide answers to the six fundamental questions from the
viewpoint of the person providing the statement. It is vital to use correct punctuation, grammar,
and spelling in all statements and reports that are done. Simple errors in a report could cause a
report to be scrutinized in court and could also jeopardize the prosecution’s case. Once you finish
all statements and reports, it is imperative that you proofread and fix any kind of errors you find
in it before finalizing it.
There are numerous different reasons that a external statement or report was written outside
of the correctional facility. There will be a stamen linked to the report for everything from traffic
tickets to severe assault. The incident’s location, the people involved, the events that took place
during them, the reason why they occurred, how they occurred, and the date of the occurence are
fundamental details that must be included in external statements. Specifics concerning vehicle
and any damage to it must be included in the external reports when it comes to docuenting traffic
accidents. Always keep in mind when doing these, there is no typical crime scene, no typical
body of evidence, and no typical investigative strategy that exists. Although every stsatement,
incident, and report will be unique, they should still follow the similar dynamics in terms of their
report’s contents.
The biblical worldview is the knowledge that every individual exists for a reason, and that
purpose is to praise God and bring glory to God. It makes no difference if you’re a high school
janitor or the President of the United States, we are all supposed to put God first and believe that
we have better days ahead of us. If we think about what the Bible tells us in Colossians 1:10, “so
as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good
work and incresing in the knowledge of God.” Thinking about what that scripture tells us, along
with what it states in Romans 13:1, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For
there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God”, I would
say that our behavior to law enforcement should be in a way the Lord wants it to be. Just like this
verse is deep for anyone that is in a position of authority whose duty is to guide and govern
people. Somewhere along the way and throughout time, some of the people in these positions
have forgotten that God founded and permitted these authority positions. When creating the
United States Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jeffereson came up with the phrase, “Life,
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This phrase gives three examples of the unalienable
rights which the Declaration says have been given to all humans by their Creator, and which
goverments are created to protect. Over time, alot of those in higher positions have seemed to
forgotten that God has given us all them rights and they were put in place to help us all be able to
keep them.
So now we have discussed the how to accurately complete felony and misdemeanor
investigations. We also went over how the monetary value of something can influence the
seriousness of a charge, how criminal offenses can be divided into crimes against persons and
crimes against property, and how crucial it is to be aware of the state laws. We also covered there
are internal and external reports and how they should respond to the six key investigative
questions as well. Police reports should be well written in chronological order answering the
questions of who, what, where, when, why, and how the incident occured. So I think this
completes my paper, as I have covered everything that I needed too.
References
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). ESV Online. https://esv.literalword.com/
Greenberg, Moe. (07/20/2010). Investigating Property Crime: A Checklist for Success. Police1.
https://www.police1.com/
Johnson, A.L. & Brown, R.M. (2019). Investigative Techniques in modern Law Enforcement.
ABC Publishers.
Morris, K. & Merson, M. (2016). Report Writing for Law Enforcement and Corrections
Professionals. Pearson Education (US).
Smith, J.P. (2023). Criminal Investigations: A Comprehensive Guide. XYZ Publications.
