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Do your officers know how to write effective incident reports?

Remember to follow three simple principles: preparation, organization and clarity

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You know it’s important to write a good report. But how do you do it? In this tip, risk management expert and Lexipol co-founder Gordon Graham emphasizes the importance of well-written, accurate, complete, objective and timely incident reports.

Get more tips from Gordon here.

Questions for discussion:

  1. What steps can officers take to ensure their reports are well-organized and easy to understand?
  2. How can officers balance providing necessary details while keeping reports concise?
  3. Why is it important to consider how a defense attorney might challenge a report?
  4. What are the consequences of leaving out key details in an incident report?
  5. How can supervisors support officers in improving their report-writing skills?

Additional police report-writing resources from Police1

Gordon Graham has been actively involved in law enforcement since 1973. He spent nearly 10 years as a very active motorcycle officer while also attending Cal State Long Beach to achieve his teaching credential, USC to do his graduate work in Safety and Systems Management with an emphasis on Risk Management, and Western State University to obtain his law degree. In 1982 he was promoted to sergeant and also admitted to the California State Bar and immediately opened his law offices in Los Angeles.