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- QUESTION
For more than a decade, a voluntary program has been moving law-enforcement agencies away from the basic incident-report format and toward a detailed format that documents much more data about an offense. This program, the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), was created as part of the Uniform Crime Reports and is administered by the FBI. It is in use in over 4,000 small and medium-size local law-enforcement agencies throughout the country, as well as a growing number of jurisdictions with populations in excess of 250,000.
Please answer the following questions:
Identify and briefly discuss four reasons why field notes are important.
What are the six interrogatory investigative questions? Explain each.
Briefly discuss the operational and administrative uses of incident reports.
How would you characterize the difference between basic incident reports and those that are NIBRS compliant? (Check the Internet for additional information on how these reports differ).
Make sure to:Write a short essay or paragraph of at least 300 words.
Use concrete examples/details and avoid generalities.
Address all questions.
Use proper grammar and punctuation.
If you researched your topic and are using information from what you learned, remember to cite your sources.
Do not plagiarize.
You will not be able to edit your assignment once you post, so please proofread and spell check before hitting post!
| Subject | Essay Writing | Pages | 3 | Style | APA |
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Answer
An Analysis of the National Incident-Based Reporting System
The Importance of Field Notes
Field notes are vital since they provide a record of the times, events, places, suspects, witnesses and any other crucial information related to a crime. Therefore, the essential details can be easily availed during court proceedings without difficulty. The notes are also practical since they make it easy to analyze offenses more accurately as written notes are more reliable in comparison to a person’s memory (Lovell, 2015). Additionally, written notes are also useful in recording specific facts and information which can quickly be forgotten. Furthermore, the extensive field notes come in handy in promoting the accuracy of a presentation during a court testimony.
Interrogatory Investigative Questions
During investigative processes, the six interrogatory questions implemented in the process include the what, who, why, where, when and how (Lovell, 2015). The six items aid in promoting knowledge about the situation. What provides a definition of the problem while relaying what it is all about and the reason for the investigation. The question about who seeks to establish the parties affected. The question about why provides a definition of why the actors were involved in an offense. Answering question about where describes the actual location where the crime took place while the when clarifies about the area of its occurrence. The question about How justifies the process of occurrence of an action. Implementing the six ws makes it possible to investigate a crime thoroughly and effectively.
Uses of Incidents Reports
Considering the operational applications of incident reports, it is evident that they can be utilized as the department's official memory. Arguably, any member of the police department can access the data to have an understanding of an incident and case. This can be facilitated in instances where the reporting officer is not available. Moreover, incident reports also play the role of assisting the officers in making sense of a crime based on an event. The reports can also serve administrative purposes in that they can be utilized in the creation of crime analysis report within a short period. Moreover, incident reports come in handy in facilitating the process of workload assignments in the police departments in that personnel tasks become effectively aligned. Furthermore, incident reports can also generate geographic information system data which can further be implemented to produce informative maps revealing the actual location of a crime.
Difference between Incident Reports and NIBRS compliant
The primary incident report and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) compliant vary in that the former contains a general overview of a crime while overlooking essential details. Debatably, information on the offense committed, the victim, compliant, offenders and witnesses are not included in the incident report which requires the members of the law enforcement department to seek additional information from other sources. On the contrary, the latter is highly detailed in that it provides information about the victims and the offenders while expounding in the relationship between the two parties to understand their manner of interaction and how it is related to a crime (Lovell, 2015). Additionally, the NIBRS is also more detailed than the necessary incident reports since it unveils the role of alcohol and drugs in promoting crime and facilitating other factors (Lovell, 2015). The NIBRS involves a voluntary form of participation despite the fact that other states consider it mandatory as a result of its associated benefits in crime reporting.
References
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Lovell, D. W. (2015). Investigating Operational Incidents in a Military Context : Law, Justice, Politics. Leiden: Brill | Nijhoff. |