These tips will help you avoid common errors in your police reports - and make your writing more professional and efficient.

1. The 10 Best Tips for
Better Police Reports
by Jean Reynolds, Ph.D.

2. Writing plays a major role in
your law-enforcement career.

3. Here are 10 writing tips that many officers have
found useful.

4. 1. Today’s technology can help you avoid many
writing problems.

5. Use your computer’s
spelling and grammar
features to check
everything you write.

6. If your laptop
software doesn’t
check grammar and
spelling, write your
reports in Word, and
paste them into your
laptop.

7. 2. Start most sentences with a person, place, or
thing.
Simple, consistent sentences help you avoid usage
errors and syntax problems.

8. Avoid empty “fillers” like “upon hearing this” or
“in response to my question….”

9. Compare these sentence pairs:

10. 3. For clarity and efficiency, use plain English
words. Avoid jargon and outdated language.

11. Compare the sentences below. Simpler is better!

12. 4. Know how to identify and fix the most common
usage errors.

15. 5. Keep a small notebook handy to take notes in
an emergency.

16. Save a few pages in the back for place names and
words that you find difficult to spell.

17. 6. Use apostrophes for
contractions (can’t, don’t)
and possessives (Mary’s
car).
Notice the apostrophe: a
woman’s problem

18. Apostrophes DO NOT
mean “more than
one.”
These are keys: No
apostrophe.

19. 7. Use active voice.
Passive voice can lead to sentence errors: “When
Fowler was question about the missing money, he
refused to say anything.”

20. Passive voice doesn’t tell
who did what (“Fowler was
arrested” – which officer
made the arrest? That might
be important in court in six
months.)

21. 8. Most sentences require only three comma rules.

22. 9. A semicolon is like a period. (Semicolons are
always optional.) Lower-case the next letter
after a semicolon unless it’s “I” or a name.
I questioned Parker; my partner called for a
backup.
Fido started barking; Joe ran to the window.

23. I asked her to attend the meeting.
I asked Clayton and her to attend the meeting.
Carter told me about the new laptops.
Carter told Sheldon and me about the new laptops.
I don’t have to work this Sunday.
Gephardt and I don’t have to work this Sunday.
10. Shorten a sentence to choose the correct
pronoun. This trick works 100% of the time!

24. You can learn more report-writing tips at
www.YourPoliceWrite.com.

25. All the resources there are FREE:
www.YourPoliceWrite.com.

26. And if you’re
looking for a
low-cost,
practical book…

27. Criminal Justice Report
Writing is available
from www.Amazon.com
for just $19.95.
View a free sample
online.

28. An e-book edition is
available from
www.Smashwords.com
for only $9.99.

29. A discount price is
available for class sets
(minimum five books).
A free Instructor’s Manual
is available for instructors
and administrators.
Send an e-mail request
from your official account
to jreynoldswrite at
aol.com.