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| Importance of Crime Reports |
If you don't write it, it didn't happen.
Put yourself in this scenario. You're a
young man on a date with your girlfriend.
You had a nice dinner; after which, you go
to a nightclub where both you and your
date have a few drinks. You're driving, so
you keep your consumption of alcohol to a
minimum. For the purpose of this
scenario, we'll stipulate that your blood
alcohol content is well below the legal level
for impairment. As for your girlfriend,
she had a few more than you, and, while
she's not intoxicated, it's apparent that
she's feeling the effects of the alcohol.
You and your date leave the club and walk
to your car which is in a parking lot a
Put yourself in this scenario. You're a
young man on a date with your girlfriend.
You had a nice dinner; after which, you go
to a nightclub where both you and your
date have a few drinks. You're driving, so
you keep your consumption of alcohol to a
minimum. For the purpose of this
scenario, we'll stipulate that your blood
alcohol content is well below the legal level
for impairment. As for your girlfriend,
she had a few more than you, and, while
she's not intoxicated, it's apparent that
she's feeling the effects of the alcohol.
You and your date leave the club and walk
to your car which is in a parking lot a
couple of blocks from the club. You and your date are talking and
laughing, so you don't notice that two men are following you onto the
parking lot. Suddenly, you're grabbed from behind and slammed
against a parked car. You hear your girlfriend scream as you recover
your footing and turn to face what turns out to be two robbers. The
suspect who initially pushed you puts his hand against your chest and
warns you to cooperate or see your girlfriend "get a cap in her head."
You quickly focus on the second suspect who's standing behind your
girlfriend. He has his left arm around her neck as he's pressing the
barrel of a handgun in his right hand against the side of her head. You
quickly comply with the first suspect's demand to hand over your
money. After the suspect has your wallet, cash, and cell phone, both
suspects run from the lot and out of sight.
At this point, bear this mind. Two Part One crimes under UCR have
just been committed. You're the victim of an armed robbery since a
gun was the weapon displayed, and property was taken from you.
You're girlfriend is the victim of an Aggravated Assault since a gun was
held to her head; however, no property was taken from her, and no
demand for property was made to her.
Okay... you head back to the club where you call police. Two police
officers respond, and while one of the officers speaks with you, the
second officer interviews your girlfriend. It soon becomes apparent that
both officers seem more interested in your consumption of alcohol
rather than the details of the robbery. Never the less, you get through
the interview, and the first officer gives you a police report reference
number, and the officers leave.
At this point, you're in a terrible mood. You've just been robbed as well
as humiliated, and two police officers made things even worse by
showing little interest in your traumatic experience. The only good
thing is you still have your car keys. Before the officers departed, you
asked about driving home without your driver's license which was in
your wallet. The first officer told you to show the form with the report
number to the police officer should you be stopped on your way home;
however, your trip home is uneventful.
As time goes by, the humiliation you suffered from the incident begins
to fade, and you've replaced all the contents of your wallet. You're not
that confident that the men who robbed you will be caught, but you
provided a good description of the suspects... particularly the first
suspect who manhandled you. You told the officers that you had no
doubt you could identify him if you saw him again. While you're not
that familiar with crime and criminals, the behavior of the suspects
showed confidence, so you knew that they'd robbed before, and they
surely would rob again... and again. You hold out hope that one day
you'll get a call from a detective telling you that police have arrested
two men for committing a similar robbery to yours and ask you to look
at some mug shots... a perfectly reasonable expectation. You even put
that police report number inside your new wallet just in case you might
need it for future reference. Now... if you thought you felt bad the night
of the robbery, you'd really feel humiliated and enraged if you knew
what was actually contained in the report that number represents. In
this scenario, you didn't get a penny's worth of the billions of dollars
poured into law enforcement annually, and law enforcement suffered
one more setback for accurately tracking and investigating crimes.
The incident title of your report is "Unfounded Robbery." The first
sentence of the report states, "No robbery occurred at (address)." This
statement is in fact true since the original address given to the officer
was the address of the nightclub where he responded to meet you. The
best parts come in the narrative where the officer describes the
"complainant" – that's you – as being "intoxicated" and your
statements as being "inconsistent." The officer ends the report by
advising you to "re-contact police when the effects of alcohol have worn
off." Of course, there's no mention of him allowing you to drive home
in your [intoxicated] condition.
As far as the police department is concerned, the crimes committed
against you and your girlfriend were never committed. There exists no
possibility of a detective contacting you in the future to identify a
suspect or suspects since no armed robbery report exists for a detective
to read, and the crimes committed will never become part of any system
to track crime trends or provide any investigative assistance relative to
similar crimes.
In a police department where real quality control features exist to
maintain a high level of integrity in its reporting system, a report like
that in the scenario could come into question somewhere along the
chain. However, in a police department where police officers play fast
and loose with facts and circumstances in reporting crime, it's likely
that the leadership of that department hasn't yet realized the absolute
importance of accurately reporting crime.
As far as police officers go, you're going to be working with a multitude
of personalities just as you would in any other vocation. While most
police officers will have integrity and a willingness to learn and do things
as they should be done, some won't. You'd expect those who are
incompetent or just plain lazy to work harder avoiding work; however,
when it comes to downgrading crime, even the most competent and hard
working police officers are susceptible to the practice of downgrading.
Every police department will insist that accurate crime reporting is a top
priority. When a department is embarrassed by an incident that
exposes a flawed crime reporting system, the department's leadership
will always insist that the system is sound and that the incident resulted
from an [isolated] procedural breakdown by an individual police officer
and first line supervision. It's a pretty safe excuse since those are the
two primary elements which must fail to produce the breakdown. The
real question that should be asked is how many undetected procedural
breakdowns occur with regularity?
Despite what others may do, it will always be your individual
responsibility to accurately report crime. As you prepare for your
career as a police officer please keep this in mind. Every type of report
you write will be important, but reports of crime take on even added
importance. The phrase, "If you don't write it, it didn't happen," isn't
just a clever comment; it's the absolute truth.
laughing, so you don't notice that two men are following you onto the
parking lot. Suddenly, you're grabbed from behind and slammed
against a parked car. You hear your girlfriend scream as you recover
your footing and turn to face what turns out to be two robbers. The
suspect who initially pushed you puts his hand against your chest and
warns you to cooperate or see your girlfriend "get a cap in her head."
You quickly focus on the second suspect who's standing behind your
girlfriend. He has his left arm around her neck as he's pressing the
barrel of a handgun in his right hand against the side of her head. You
quickly comply with the first suspect's demand to hand over your
money. After the suspect has your wallet, cash, and cell phone, both
suspects run from the lot and out of sight.
At this point, bear this mind. Two Part One crimes under UCR have
just been committed. You're the victim of an armed robbery since a
gun was the weapon displayed, and property was taken from you.
You're girlfriend is the victim of an Aggravated Assault since a gun was
held to her head; however, no property was taken from her, and no
demand for property was made to her.
Okay... you head back to the club where you call police. Two police
officers respond, and while one of the officers speaks with you, the
second officer interviews your girlfriend. It soon becomes apparent that
both officers seem more interested in your consumption of alcohol
rather than the details of the robbery. Never the less, you get through
the interview, and the first officer gives you a police report reference
number, and the officers leave.
At this point, you're in a terrible mood. You've just been robbed as well
as humiliated, and two police officers made things even worse by
showing little interest in your traumatic experience. The only good
thing is you still have your car keys. Before the officers departed, you
asked about driving home without your driver's license which was in
your wallet. The first officer told you to show the form with the report
number to the police officer should you be stopped on your way home;
however, your trip home is uneventful.
As time goes by, the humiliation you suffered from the incident begins
to fade, and you've replaced all the contents of your wallet. You're not
that confident that the men who robbed you will be caught, but you
provided a good description of the suspects... particularly the first
suspect who manhandled you. You told the officers that you had no
doubt you could identify him if you saw him again. While you're not
that familiar with crime and criminals, the behavior of the suspects
showed confidence, so you knew that they'd robbed before, and they
surely would rob again... and again. You hold out hope that one day
you'll get a call from a detective telling you that police have arrested
two men for committing a similar robbery to yours and ask you to look
at some mug shots... a perfectly reasonable expectation. You even put
that police report number inside your new wallet just in case you might
need it for future reference. Now... if you thought you felt bad the night
of the robbery, you'd really feel humiliated and enraged if you knew
what was actually contained in the report that number represents. In
this scenario, you didn't get a penny's worth of the billions of dollars
poured into law enforcement annually, and law enforcement suffered
one more setback for accurately tracking and investigating crimes.
The incident title of your report is "Unfounded Robbery." The first
sentence of the report states, "No robbery occurred at (address)." This
statement is in fact true since the original address given to the officer
was the address of the nightclub where he responded to meet you. The
best parts come in the narrative where the officer describes the
"complainant" – that's you – as being "intoxicated" and your
statements as being "inconsistent." The officer ends the report by
advising you to "re-contact police when the effects of alcohol have worn
off." Of course, there's no mention of him allowing you to drive home
in your [intoxicated] condition.
As far as the police department is concerned, the crimes committed
against you and your girlfriend were never committed. There exists no
possibility of a detective contacting you in the future to identify a
suspect or suspects since no armed robbery report exists for a detective
to read, and the crimes committed will never become part of any system
to track crime trends or provide any investigative assistance relative to
similar crimes.
In a police department where real quality control features exist to
maintain a high level of integrity in its reporting system, a report like
that in the scenario could come into question somewhere along the
chain. However, in a police department where police officers play fast
and loose with facts and circumstances in reporting crime, it's likely
that the leadership of that department hasn't yet realized the absolute
importance of accurately reporting crime.
As far as police officers go, you're going to be working with a multitude
of personalities just as you would in any other vocation. While most
police officers will have integrity and a willingness to learn and do things
as they should be done, some won't. You'd expect those who are
incompetent or just plain lazy to work harder avoiding work; however,
when it comes to downgrading crime, even the most competent and hard
working police officers are susceptible to the practice of downgrading.
Every police department will insist that accurate crime reporting is a top
priority. When a department is embarrassed by an incident that
exposes a flawed crime reporting system, the department's leadership
will always insist that the system is sound and that the incident resulted
from an [isolated] procedural breakdown by an individual police officer
and first line supervision. It's a pretty safe excuse since those are the
two primary elements which must fail to produce the breakdown. The
real question that should be asked is how many undetected procedural
breakdowns occur with regularity?
Despite what others may do, it will always be your individual
responsibility to accurately report crime. As you prepare for your
career as a police officer please keep this in mind. Every type of report
you write will be important, but reports of crime take on even added
importance. The phrase, "If you don't write it, it didn't happen," isn't
just a clever comment; it's the absolute truth.
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