The New Police Report Manual

It's a plain language book explaining the primary need of writing an investigative report- clear communication.

If you are wondering how to write a police report, this is the book for you.

I had Rutledge's "It Easy to Write Better Reports" handout from over 20 years ago. This manual expands on the handout. With over a decade teaching report writing in an academy & at a university level, I highly recommend this book. Cadets have gone on to receive high marks for their report writing skills on evaluations thanks to Rutledge's thoughts. His cry to simplify wins cases. The very fact that he is a prosecutor adds a great deal of credence to what he teaches.

The book was new, even radical, when I read the first edition in the early 1980s. Rutledge advocated a plain English approach to report writing instead of the affected legalese that was the style of the day (and still infests some agencies' writing). A well written narrative report has nothing to do with the technology used to produce it. Whether the writer uses a pencil and legal pad, typewriter, word processor, or clay tablet, good English is good English. Whatever else anyone wants to say about him, Rutledge broke me of some bad writing habits ("Photographs were taken by this officer of Suspect A..."). For that he has my eternal gratitude.

This book is a must read for all new police officers, FTO's, and police supervisors. Rutledge's no-nonsense, get to the point approach is both effective and refreshing. I'm sure I am not the only police supervisor finding that many new officers have major difficulties in report writing. I have used this book when teaching and tutoring, and I have found it to be a great help. After applying the concepts identified and discussed in the book, the majority of officers are able to quickly overcome many of their writing issues, and develop a simple, yet highly effective style of police report writing.