Weird Request

[wolven7]

Do any of you know the process for detective-level case reports? Do you know where I could find some examples? It's been suggested that I do a Freedom of Information Act request for "Deaths Ruled Suicide" and then for Case Report Specifics, but I don't know how long that will take to go through.

See, the thing is, I woke up with a real yen to get back to this story I'm working on, and the format of the police report is extremely important to the structure of the narrative, so I would like to be able to accurately portray the kind of cadence, grammar, and content one would find in an actual police report.

So. Help?

Comments

[choronzon333.livejournal.com]

Here's what a police report will typically look like:

http://media.nbcphiladelphia.com/documents/Press+release+Ryan+Dunn.pdf

One thing I could suggest is to look up reports of suicides on local newspaper sites. The first few paragraphs are usually verbatim from the official police reports.

Dunno if that helps...

[choronzon333.livejournal.com]

And some departments will post incidents online, which besides the boxes to be ticked on the form are made up of the text of the reports.

Example - the Sacramento PD site:

http://www.sacpd.org/newsroom/releases/

[choronzon333.livejournal.com]

More specifically:

http://www.sacpd.org/newsroom/releases/liveview.aspx?release_id=20110824-144

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for these, they look to be Extremely helpful.

[satans-muse.livejournal.com]

could something like this help:

ttp://elonnc.policereports.us/search.html

I just typed the letter "a" into the location section and hit search.
It came back with a fair few reports.

Then there's http://www.careerpoliceofficer.com/PoliceandVictims/police_report_writing.html
May be of some help?

Good luck!

[satans-muse.livejournal.com]

PS. I would still do the FOI request so you can get specific examples for the scenario you are writing about.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Very good point. Thanks!

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Thank you!