Sometimes we’re so busy with the mechanics of report writing that we lose sight of the big picture. Police reports are supposed to record what a particular officer saw, heard, and did. That’s all!

Today I’m going to talk about a report that did not fulfill that purpose. In September 2021, a woman named Mikhiel Whitlock was tried for assault with a deadly weapon. (You can read the story here.)

Problems began when the defense attorney started questioning the  officer who arrested Whitlock. It turned out that a second officer had provided some of the information in the report.

Here’s an excerpt from a news story about the trial. The officer began by insisting that the report truthfully recorded what he had seen.

The defense then asked why the officer would write that “John Doe followed [Whitlock] to the listed address in his vehicle and try to force [Whitlock] into his vehicle” if he did not have any first-hand knowledge of this occurrence.

The officer said that “the summary was written in a collection of the other officers’ reports,” and admitted he had received information from another officer.

Moments later the judge started asking questions about the accuracy of the report.

This story serves as a useful reminder to everyone who writes police reports: make sure you stick to the principles you’ve been taught!