The Best Police Report Writing Book With Samples: Written For Police By Police, This Is Not An English Lesson
Posted on April 29th, 2010 by
Get Rid of Writer's Procrastination and Put Your Words to Work For You Now with: Writer's success. This is 100% No Risk to You
Product Description
A great police report writing book. With lots of samples. This book is current, relevant and packed with tips. Written by a police officer who actually taught report writing.Easy to read, entertaining, with easy to… More >>
I originally saw this book mentioned in my ILEETA newsletter. I logged on Amazon to buy it. I guess I should have known when I noticed the author wrote a glowing review of his own book.
This is one of the most poorly written books I have ever encountered. The mistakes in this book are too numerous to list in this small space but they include:
Multiple instances of improper use of possessive (`s)
Multiple instances of awkward and/or incomplete sentence.
Multiple examples that this book was not proofread or inadequately proofread.
Multiple examples of misplaced commas.
Multiple examples of improper use of punctuation marks.
The author does not seem to know when to put information related to the sentence in parenthesis and when to start a new sentence.
The author by his own admission is not an English teacher. He then goes on to write an incomplete chapter about grammar. Included in the chapter is a section on adjectives but no mention of adverbs; the author addresses only 4 parts of speech when there are at least 8. It would seem that grammar would be an essential part of any report writing book. (Well, either have a chapter about grammar or don’t).
Any book on report writing is better than this one (Holtz, Wallace/Roberson, Frazee). This book contains a lengthy chapter on Use of Force reporting. The absolute indispensible work on Use of Force reporting was authored by George T. Williams.
As an author of two law enforcement books and over fifty professional articles I know how hard it is to put your work out there to be scrutinized by a critical profession. But to author a book about report writing and have this many grammatical mistakes is indefensible. This is certainly not the Best Police Report Writing Book- in fact it is one of the worst. If this book was a police report it would be returned to the officer’s box with the words- Re-Write and Re-Submit written in red.
12-18-09
Sir-
Thank you for your response. Leaving grammar aside and concentrating on the body of the report narrative, I believe you may want to review a few crucial areas of information:
1- I believe you propose to address the subjects of the report by roles (p. 78), rather than name (i.e. Suspect told victim “Stick ‘em up.”) I have found it is current in the profession to use the names in the narrative(i.e “Jones told Smith “Stick ‘em up.”).
2- I also believe you propose using military time vs. AM/PM (p. 55). Considering the audience of a report goes beyond law enforcement personnel, most in the profession recommend AM/PM. Law enforcement is moving toward plain language.
3- On p. 49, you suggest to list in your notebook, in order, from your department’s report, the information needed to fill in a report. Why not just carry a blank report and fill it in as you go along?
4- It seems on p. 49 you advocate putting the information in the ‘fill in’ section of the police report then not mentioning it again in the narrative section. If I read this correctly, it means you have a lot of “on the above date and time at the above location the above listed victim operated the above listed auto…” I believe this to be very out of step with what is current in our profession. The narrative should stand alone without forcing the reader to refer back to other parts of the report.
5- It seems on p. 55 there is confusion between the term ‘complainant’ and ‘victim.’ The text states that if you are investigating an armed robbery at a convenience store and no one is hurt, “the first complainant is the business.” A complainant is generally defined as “A party that makes a complaint or files a formal charge, as in a court of law; a plaintiff.” It would be clearer if the report just listed victims of the crime.
6- On p. 99 you state you never used a question mark in a police report. A drug suspect never answered a question with a question? In drug interdiction circles, this is a major indicator and must be clearly listed.
I know things are done differently throughout the country, but in my travels and teachings, in my humble opinion, what this book teaches is not consistent with the rest of the profession.
From your samples in the back, I can tell you are a good cop with a lot of experience. It is a shame all this excellent experience and knowledge is clouded by the sentence structure, grammar and punctuation of this text.
Rating: 1 / 5
I have read a lot of police report writing books. This book delivers just what it says it will. It describes a lot of behind the scene tips that are invaluable to a police officer, new or experienced. The easy to read, humorous scenarios with a sample right next to it is truly unique for this subject. The constant references, sample boxes and quick notes really do make this subject easy to understand. But, the sample police reports are just what I was always looking for and have happily found!!!!
Rating: 5 / 5
Dear “SafeCop” thank you for your critique of my book. With the greatest respect to you and your opinions I will just briefly remind you the tagline for my book does very clearly state, “this is not an English lesson.” You can tell by the words, “this is not an English lesson”. Yet you criticize my book for not being an English lesson?
My students reading this book already know how to write a sentence. They do not need yet another writing class. Police officers need to know the basics of how to document information from a crime scene. Police officers need to know how to organize that information prior to putting it on a police report. Police Officers need to know how to document that information to prosecute the bad guy successfully and protect themselves from liability.
Police report writing is a subject that many non-cop people think they can teach. Many assume that it is only about writing a perfect sentence and all that other legal, statutory stuff will just have to fit. That is absolutely not how police report writing works. We function off of state statutes. Every element of a crime must be included for successful prosecution. Sometimes this fits in a neat little sentence and sometimes it can go on and on making sure you have every detail included so your case does not get noll prosequi and you end up in internal affairs explaining yourself yet again. (probably a run-on sentence there)
This book was written after years of feedback from my students. Their struggles, suggestions and comments about what they needed from a police report writing class are incorporated. Feedback from supervisors was solicited and included. And finally prosecutors were consulted. Why are cases being thrown out of court? What do you need to see on police reports that you are not getting? Their requests are in this book too.
This book is way beyond a simple “writing book” it is for police to learn how to write a police report simply, quickly, efficiently. It prepares you mentally and prepares you and your equipment to begin documentation immediately. Officer safety while gathering documentation is emphasized throughout. Due to the often overwhelming nature of police report writing, samples are shown step by step. The officers that have sat through a report writing class but came out empty and confused swear by this book.
Do not buy this book for a grammar lesson, as clearly stated at the top of my Amazon ad. Buy this book if you are a police officer and need to learn how to write a police report. You will have samples to keep it simple and keep you on track.
This is not classroom stuff it is real cop stuff! Written by a cop that has been there and had bad report writing instructors who taught nothing but were obsessed with red pens and commas.
This book is for you guys working on the street, keeping us safe. Thank you and be careful!!
SafeCop, thank you for bringing the grammar errors in the book to my attention. I will let the person that did the proofreading know of your feedback. Any issues you mentioned will be addressed and corrected immediately.
A.S. Michael
Rating: 5 / 5