Report Writing for Police Officers (2nd Ed.)

This book is designed for criminal justice instructors. It requires them to help students work through the various police reports. The reports are intentionally left incomplete to require students to work through them. Some reports may seem to ask confusing questions, which may lead to unreliable responses. This is to be used as a lesson: unreliable responses create statistics that are not valid. Managers need to improve the forms in order to obtain valid data. This book first discusses communication theory and how it applies to police officers and prosecutors in the courtroom. Information presented in the courtroom by police officers has a significant impact upon the jurors. Indeed, police officers communicate both verbally and nonverbally in the courtroom and this affects their credibility on the stand. Furthermore, by employing persuasion theories, prosecutors can align the officers' testimonies to the jurors' particular communication preference. Second, this book discusses truth as it relates to probable cause and beyond reasonable doubt. Finally, because report writing is a significant part of police work, this book presents a variety of police forms that will engage students in written communication.

Dr. Davis has a science, business, and criminal justice background and has over twenty years of law enforcement experience with city, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. He graduated in the top 1 percent from Capella University and from Madonna University, graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan Dearborn, and scored in the top 1 percent when troopers from his graduating class were assessed by the Indiana State Police. He has received the U.S. Customs & Border Protection Commissioners Award and the U.S. Customs & Border Protection Scholastic Award. He was nominated for the Ford Motor Company Electronics Division Worldwide Leadership Excellence Award when he introduced the electronic engine control module into the pleasure boat industry. Dr. Davis has filed for a patent for Table Top Police Scenes, authored several criminal justice textbooks, and conducted academic research.