1. Notre Dame College Police Department
Incident Reports and Call Records (Part 1)
Report Writing Policy and Procedures

2. Purpose and Policy
Purpose – To ensure that officers properly file a report on all incidents that occur on any property owned or controlled by Notre Dame College.
Policy – All officers will properly file an incident report. All basic police reports shall be completed prior to the end of the officer’s shift, unless otherwise directed by a supervisor.

3. Definition - Incident
An incident is any event outside the scope of normal activity which may include, but is not limited to:
Crimes or criminal activities
College policy violations
Damage to property
Any non-criminal injury or casualty
Any other incident that is unusual in nature

4. Introduction
Officers may learn of an incident through a variety of sources. While the two most common forms are requests for assistance and routine patrol activities, these are not the only modes.
Officers shall properly and promptly file incident reports for any of the previously defined incidents, or at the direction of a supervisor.

5. Procedures
Upon learning of any incident, officers shall promptly complete a basic incident report.
All basic reports shall include:
Date, time, and location of the incident
Type of incident, including type of crime, if a criminal report
Full name(s) of known complainant(s), victim(s), suspect(s) and witness(es)
Personal identifiers – Social Security Number, Driver’s License ID Number, College ID Number, Date of Birth
Full legal and temporary addresses

6. Procedures In addition, all basic reports shall include:
Valid contact telephone numbers
Vehicle information, description, and identifiers, as appropriate
Full names of all parties
Full physical descriptions
Descriptions of evidence/property seized

7. Procedures
The narrative section of the report shall be a complete and concise statement of the facts of the incident, including answers to all of the following:
Who
What
Why
When
Where
How

8. Procedures
Officers shall utilize proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar, when completing an incident report.
Police officers shall complete all reports using the online OHLEG - Records Management System.

9. Procedures
Police call record and report numbers will be in succession in the following format: AA-BBBB-CC
The “AA” numbers represent the last two digits of the current year. Example: would be 15
The “BBBB” numbers represent the sequential report number, beginning with 0001
The “CC” numbers represent the two-digit month the report was taken in, 01 through 12

10. Procedures
All incident reports will begin with a call record; however, not all call records will require an incident report. Activity that does not meet the definition of an incident may be recorded with a call record.
The incident report number shall be the same as the call record number.
The hard copy of the incident report will be placed in a case folder and placed in the in-box for reports.
The exterior of the case folder shall bear the report number, the type of incident, and the date of the incident.

11. Procedures
All applicable investigative documents, statements, copies of evidence/property sheets, supplemental reports, pictures, video, and all other items shall be placed in the case file folder and uploaded into OHLEG-RMS.
All basic police reports shall be completed prior to the end of the officer’s shift, unless otherwise directed by a supervisor.
All supplemental investigative activity will be recorded in investigator’s notes and added to the report as the investigation proceeds.

12. Procedures
Student schedule printouts from CARS will not be maintained in the case file or uploaded into OHLEG-RMS. They will be shredded when no longer needed.
Printouts from OHLEG, LEADS, or NCIC will not be uploaded into OHLEG-RMS. They will not be maintained in the case folder unless criminal charges have been issued. In this case, the printouts will be forwarded to the court and to the prosecutor’s office with the report.

13. Thank you for taking this course.