CDI 5: TECHNICAL ENGLISH 1(TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING AND PRESENTATION)

MODULE 10:SPOT AND INCIDENT REPORT

SPOT REPORT
 
Figure 1 – Spot Report
Police Report Writing – Wisemen’s Books Trading,
Inc.
Spot Report refers to an immediate initial
investigative or incident report addressed to Higher
Headquarters pertaining to the commission of the
crime, occurrence of natural or man-made disaster or
unusual incidents involving loss of lives and damage
of properties. Such incidents must be acted upon and
reported to higher police office whether verbal or
written, within twenty-four hours.
The idea is to inform an immediate chief, which is a
standard operating procedure, considering the fact
that whatever happens in the area is a command
responsibility, or that one from higher police office
must be informed regarding the details relative to a
particular occurrence.
A Spot report may use a radiographic message form,
especially if the reporting unit is far from the
addressee or receiving higher police office
concerned. Information contained therein must be
complete, answering the 5Ws and1H.

Incident Report

Figure 2 – Incident Report

Police Report Writing – Wisemen’s Books
Trading, Inc.

An incident report is a written account of an

event or occurrence. The purpose of this
report is to document the exact details of the
occurrence as basis for further actions of
concerned public safety officers. Incident
reports are the jump-off points of
investigations designed to ferret out the facts
and recommend solutions.
 
While the term police incident report sounds
so straightforward you might think it's self-
explanatory, it's actually just the entrance into
a deep rabbit hole of law enforcement
reporting jargon. It's absolutely necessary for

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CDI 5: TECHNICAL ENGLISH 1(TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING AND PRESENTATION)
MODULE 10:SPOT AND INCIDENT REPORT

police departments to maintain detailed logs of

factual and eye-witness information pertaining to
reported crimes, and alongside the police report,
the incident report serves as one of the very first
documents on that journey as told by the victim of
the crime.

The most defining characteristic of an incident

report is that it is not written by the police. When
a crime occurs and is reported to the police,
the victim of the crime makes a statement
regarding the incident.

Police Incident Report: Contents

Even more so than naming conventions, the
actual contents of an incident report vary widely
with the nature of the incident. Most police
departments offer incident report forms, which
serve as templates for victims to fill in relevant
information. These reports are packed full of info, often including:

 Type of crime.
 Date and time the crime began.
 Date and time the crime ended.
 Date and time the report was
created.
 Location of the incident.
 Type of location, such as
school or restaurant.
 Identifying information for the
victim, including name, date of
birth, driver's license number
and Social Security number.
 Physical information for the
victim, such as height, weight,
age, hair color, race, sex and
eye color.
 Contact information for the
victim, such as residence
address, business address,
employer name, phone
numbers and email address.