Peace/Police Officer

Note ̶ Taking and No ELBOWS

Page One Book One

• The first things is what does your note book say on page one

• The second thing is under case law and SOP’swhat does you department POLICY state on peace ( Police ) note taking this is critical because its not just you but what your DEPARTEMENTAL Instructions are on taking notes in Canada!

Ok since the court have noted it

• Show me your department POLICY on note taking!

The value of notes

Fundamentally important to our justice systems

Reliance by the courts• Memory aids in giving

evidence• May be evidence per se –

past recollection recorded

Their trustworthiness critically important

Inquiries have noted

The proper practice is for each officer to make his or her own independent set of notes. When officers collaborate in preparing notes, there is a serious risk that one officer may unconsciously supplement something from the other officer’s recollection which he or she never observed. If it is then written down in the officer’s notebook to be used to refresh his or her memory, it will become part of the officer’s recollection even though he or she never saw it. Once combined memories are committed to a uniform set of notes, each officer will later refresh his or her memory as to an event that they never saw

Every incident starts with key data

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The value of notes

The Canadian consensus

Notes should reflect an officer’s independent recollection of an incident

• Should be authored while events are still fresh in officer’s mind; and

• Without any conferral or collaboration with other witnesses

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The independence of notes

Prevailing instruction and training

Your notes are made from independent recollection and are your link to the past.

Notes must contain your independent recollections providing an accurate and complete account of peace/ police officer observations and activities.

The boss plays a role

The majority of peace/ police officers are issued with a pocket notebook which is an official document and must be carried at all times when on duty in uniform or in plain cloths. The book is issued by a supervisor and a record is kept of all books issued. It is police property and should be stored centrally after completion until it is required for reference or for use when giving evidence.

Field Notes• Field notes are the basis for a complete and accurate police

report• Field note-taking is essential to capture information that

might otherwise be lost• Field notes are written impressions and facts gathered

during all investigative activities– Arrival at the scene– Witness interviews– Interrogations– Crime scene searches– Record searches and reviews– Crime scene sketches

Field Notes

• Serve as the factual foundation for the report

• Good notes turn into good reports

• Serve as memory aids – Future interviews

– Briefing other officers or supervisors

– Testifying in court

• Enhance the credibility of the officer and the report

The True Value

Pocket notebook entries should form a comprehensive record of an event to ensure that you can refer to the maximum amount of information when giving evidence in court or looking back at incidents/events that you have dealt with. Entries will be used as the basis of reports or statements; both these documents are merely extracts of the facts from the notes and should not contain any substantive material that was not recorded at the time. You may use the notebook to refresh your memory when giving evidence if the court gives permission, providing the court is satisfied that the entries were made at the time of the offence or incident or as soon as practicable afterwards.

Field Notes ̶ Specific Information to be Captured

• Location and time of offense

• Names and identifying data of victims, witnesses, or suspects

• Verbatim statements

• Property and injury listings

• Investigative data and method of operation

• Crime scene recording

You may be held out to dry

The pocket notebook is subject to the scrutiny of the court and in order to support its integrity a number of rules for its completion have been established. These should become second nature to you and, if followed carefully, will help to promote your reliability as a witness and the reputation of the service as a whole. Failure to comply with these rules may lead the court to question the accuracy of your evidence and your honesty as a witness. This in turn may result in the exclusion of your evidence and ultimately in the dismissal of the case.

Field Notes ̶ Styles

• Outline style – Arranged by subject– Arranged by time

• Verbatim method– Precise words of the individual giving the statement– Can be of great courtroom value – Officers should use quotation marks when

documenting exact statements

• Keep crime scene notes separate from statement notes

In field statements

A note should be made of any comments made by a person suspected of committing an offence whether these comments are in response to your questions or not. The person should be invited to read the note and write an endorsement to the effect that ‘I certify that this is a true and accurate record of the conversation that took place’. This should be signed by the suspect and the officer as the conversation may be construed to be an interview. If the suspect does not consider it to be correct, he or she should be invited to indicate which details are considered to be inaccurate and to sign a record of those details. If the suspected person refuses to read or sign the note, this should be noted and signed by the officer. The senior officer present should read the note over to the suspect and ask whether he would like to sign it as correct, or indicate the aspects he considers to be inaccurate, then endorse the pocket notebook as to what has taken place.

Field Notes ̶How to Write Them

• Notes should be legible and orderly

• Keep them organized

• Follow a standardized pattern, regardless of the type of case

• Be systematic

• Don’t put the names of confidential informants in your notebook

– Defense attorneys are entitled to see your notes if you use them to prepare your testimony

– Use a code or number to refer to any informant (DD125)

• Keep them professional

Field Notes– Documentation

• Times– When you were dispatched

– Arrival time

– Beginning and end of interviews

– All times!

• Verbatim statements

• Proper names and date of birth

• Phone number, address, etc.

Remember: Effective notes are essential

for effective reports!!!

Blank Pages we have NONE!

Blank Where whole or part pages are accidentally left blank a diagonal line should be drawn across the blank area and ‘omitted in error’ written across the page if a mistake is made, cross it out with a single line so that the word or words remain legible. Initial the deletion and follow it with the replacement word or words.

Joint

Joint notes Where a number of officers have witnessed the same incident, or have been present at an interview, they may confer when preparing notes. Such notes must, however, include only genuine recollections of the officers concerned. Where joint notes have been made it is necessary that the officers endorse their own pocket notebooks to the effect that this has happened and include the times between which the note-writing took place, the location and who was present.

No where in law does it say BOOK

No pocket notebook available When you are off duty and not in possession of your pocket notebook or when, for any other reason, it is not available to you and there is the need to make notes, you may use any available piece of paper for the purpose. The general rules for note taking should be followed wherever possible and the note should be formally preserved as an ‘exhibit’ and attached to any subsequent report or statement. It may be used as a reference when giving evidence and should therefore be available for inspection at court.

And NO ELBOWS what so ever!

It has RULES

The rules are: • Entries should be made in black ink. • Entries should be made at the time of the event which is being recorded or, where circumstances prevent this, as soon as possible after the event. Where there is a delay the specific reasons should be included, for example the conduct of the suspect or other persons involved in the incident. • The day, date and year should be recorded and underlined at the beginning of entries for that day. • All surnames and place names should be in block capitals. • Entries should be made only on the lines of the pages of the book and all lines and pages should be used. • Each entry should include time and location. • Names and addresses of victims, offenders, witnesses and informants should be recorded. Additional information about the offender may be relevant depending on the incident. • Where the incident involves vehicles, property or documents, full descriptive details should be recorded including unique identifiers, e.g. registration marks, serial numbers etc. • It is often necessary to record information or a person’s account of an incident immediately into the notebook and, as a result, the entry may not necessarily make sense to a reader. Such an entry should be made in direct speech wherever possible, for example: Q: “Can you explain what happened?” A: “Yes, I was walking along the High Street when ” • It should then be followed by a section of narrative which accurately explains the event

Reports

• Police reports are the natural culmination of field notes

• Reports are a permanent record and are intended to preserve information

• 15 ̶ 20% of an officer’s duty time is expended on report writing

Who Reviews Reports?

• Other investigators or patrol officers

• Supervisors

• Officials from other law enforcement agencies

• Prosecutors

• Defense attorneys

• Judges (including appellate judges)

The Paper Trail…Starts with the Initial Report

The Six Questions All Police Reports Should Answer

• Who– Committed the crime– Was the victim– Are the witnesses– Reported the incident

• What– Happened– Was stolen– Evidence exists

• When – Did the crime occur– Was the crime reported

• Where– Did the crime occur– Is the evidence

• How – Did the crime occur– Was the crime discovered– Were the police notified

• Why – Did the suspect commit the

crime

Five Essential Elements to a Police Report

• Completeness

• Conciseness

• Clearness

• Correctness

• Courteousness or fairness

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The independence of notes

Canadian case law

R v Barrett (1993), 82 C.C.C. (3d) 266 at 275 (Ont. C.A.)

[Sgt VanDemark] made these notes by reading Sgt. Hanlon’s notebook and,

since he agreed with the content, he initialled Sgt. Hanlon’s notebook and

copied Hanlon’s notes into his own book. When asked in cross-examination

why he did not take his own independent notes while the interview was being

conducted, he replied: “That’s not the way we conduct our investigations.” It is

not for me to tell the hold-up squad how to proceed for investigative purposes,

but in so far as there are evidentiary consequences to those practices, I can

say that they are unsatisfactory. Whenever possible, every officer in

attendance at the interview who will want to refer to his or her notes as a

memory aid for the purpose of giving evidence should take contemporaneous

independent notes. [emphasis added]

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The independence of notes:In the Courts they have noted

The court’s decisionThe acceptance of this practice … obviously has the potential to impact on the value of evidence which an officer may subsequently have to give about an incident. That evidence will often depend very heavily on the officer’s first account, to which he will be allowed to refer in giving his evidence. However much an officer who has conferred with colleagues may strive to record only what he has seen or heard for himself, there is a real risk that his recollection will have been “contaminated” by what he has been told; and he may in perfect good faith incorporate elements in his own account which have in fact derived from other witnesses, or subconsciously suppress elements which seem to him inconsistent with their accounts. That is a matter of common sense and common experience, but it is confirmed by psychological studies.

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The independence of notes:The Provincial landscape

The real risk NOT that officers would intentionally tailor their notes

Similarly, it is NOT bad faith on the part of lawyers who represent multiple involved officers that results in the contamination; to the contrary, it is the lawyer’s good faith discharge of his or her duties that raises the spectre of contamination