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Report writing can consume a third of an officer’s day, making the tools they use essential for efficiency
Writing a police report is a fundamental task for law enforcement officers that is crucial for ensuring accurate documentation of incidents. A well-written report can significantly impact the investigation and prosecution of a case.
At the same time, report writing can feel like a burden for many officers today. Agencies everywhere are understaffed and struggling with tired and burnt out officers. If agencies can leverage the right tools to reduce the amount of time it takes to write reports, they can free up officers to do more police work and less paperwork. This, in turn, can help reduce burnout and act as a force multiplier for understaffed agencies.
In this article, we will provide a step-by-step explanation on how to craft an effective police report using the latest software in public safety. These steps and technology tools can help your officers spend less time writing reports, and also produce reports that are higher quality. Let’s get started.
Gather and record information at the scene
When arriving at the scene of an incident, it is essential to gather as much information as possible. This includes the basic facts: who, what, where, when, why and how.
Whether you are interviewing witnesses, discussing with fellow first responders on the scene, or engaging in bi-directional communications with support teams using the Axon Body 4, it’s important to be as vocal as possible so that all the information can be captured on your body-worn camera. You’ll see soon how being more communicative in the moment can help you save time in your reporting later.
Start a report in your records management system
As you go through your shift, you are collecting a significant volume of body-camera footage, incident reports, and subject records. It’s important to have these records stored and organized in a records management system (RMS) that is efficient and easy to use for you and your agency.
Kicking off a report may seem overwhelming at first with numerous, sometimes duplicative, fields that need to be completed. However, with Axon Records features such as dynamic form filling and customizable form fields you can save time and reduce errors. You will no longer have to enter the same information multiple times, instead forms will instantly adapt with each input to show only fields that are relevant to the task at hand.
Provide a detailed narrative
The narrative is the core of the report. This is where you detail the sequence of events, observations, and actions taken. However, not only is it the core of the report but it is also something that takes up a significant portion of any officer’s day. Law enforcement officers spend nearly 10 to 15 hours per week on report writing. Although a tedious task that may take away from being in the community, report writing is vital to ensure accountability and maintain transparency throughout the justice system.
Report writing isn’t going away, but there is new technology that can make it easier for you to draft narratives and complete reports faster. Draft One is a solution designed to assist with report writing. With the click of a button, Draft One analyzes body-worn camera transcripts and drafts a report narrative within seconds. Officers who use Draft One are required to review, edit and sign off on the final report before submitting directly in Axon Records or copying into their existing records management system.
When drafting a narrative, you need to keep track of meticulous details to ensure your report is complete and accurate. This includes making sure all the relevant facts are included, the information is presented in a neutral way that is free of personal opinions, and that the language is appropriate and written in a clear and understandable manner. With Draft One, not only can you save an hour of report writing each shift, but studies have also shown that Draft One narratives measured significantly better than officer-only narratives in the dimensions of terminology and coherence.
Attach digital evidence
Another core part of any report is digital evidence. Agencies are dealing with an exponentially increasing volume of digital evidence which officers often need to attach to their reports. This can be a tedious task, as one respondent of the 2024 RMS Trends Report explained: “Uploading and dealing with digital media is a major challenge. I must store the media off the server on USB/DVD’s and then reference it from our RMS system.”
While many RMS solutions may require officers to manually search for and attach digital evidence to their reports, there are integrated options that can ease this process. Axon Records streamlines this workflow enabling you to search and attach relevant digital evidence files stored in Axon Evidence without ever having to leave the RMS platform.
Submit your report
As you submit a report, you need to make sure that all required fields are completed. Axon Records will ensure you have completed all mandatory fields by checking against both your agency’s custom policies and national standards such as NIBRS. With data validation built-in to the report generation process, error reporting happens in real-time for an even more streamlined process for officers and records departments. 
Download a sample report from Axon Records
Once a report is validated and submitted, a new process begins. The workflows within your RMS ensure your report moves on to the next step which is review with supervisors. A customizable solution, such as Axon Records, allows your agency to configure these workflows to achieve the highest level of efficiency for report review and case management.
In addition to supervisory review of reports, you may need to share certain records with attorneys as well. Attorneys require ready access to information collected by police to prepare for legal proceedings, and this can often take a significant amount of time to compile. Fortunately, with an integration between Axon Records case management and Axon Evidence, you can create a new Records case to generate a corresponding one in Evidence automatically. This means any files added to either will appear in both applications, averting discovery-related back-and-forth that can slow the justice process.
Conclusion
A well-written police report is an essential component in law enforcement and the justice system. However, report writing can also take up a significant amount of time, taking officers away from being out in the community, training, or spending more time with your family. With new solutions and features increasing efficiency in every step of the report-writing process, you can save valuable time and resources. Watch the Draft One webinar to hear more about how agencies are saving an hour or more per shift on report writing.