Just the Facts: Investigative Report Writing, Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: Just the Facts
Review: I am a Field Training Officer for a large Southern California law enforcement agency and the most difficult part to teach new officers is how to write a proper report.I have trained over 30 law enforcement officers with various educational backgrounds and all of them have had problems with report writing. I consider this book to be an excellent reference to improve your report writing skills and have encouraged every new officer that I have trained recently to purchase this book.

The book explained the basics of investigation, note taking, rules of narrative writing, describing persons and property,and issues in writing. The book also explained how to write a search warrant and how to dictate your reports.

The overall content of the book was excellent and my only complaint was that the book should have provided sample narrative reports from several different agencies. The law enforcement agency that I work for uses headings for the narrative while other agencies do not. Hopefully, the author will include sample burglary,theft,vandalism, robbery and other criminal reports in a future edition or set-up a website with sample criminal reports.

In closing, if you are a law enforcement officer that has weak report writing skills or a rookie police officer that wants to learn how to write good reports then buy this book and follow the advice in it.