Role of Police Reports In the Law Enforcement Community

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A discourse community is a community that shares common goals, language, and genres. Law enforcement officers belong to their own discourse community in which they are united in their overall purpose: to protect and serve. An oath they take when sworn in as officers. Law enforcement officers seem to speak a common language that, to a civilian, is foreign. We’ve all heard the famous “10-4” comment for “understood” or “got it” on police shows and in action movies. Pretty much everything that comes out of an on-duty officer’s mouth is in some sort of code.

One important genre in the law enforcement community is police reports. Police reports are the standardize way of reporting and are often the same in all states. Police reports are significant because they can be used to determine criminal charges and to further an investigation (Viridis). There are various types of police reports that all serve different purposes. I have chosen two different types of police reports to evaluate in this essay. One is a missing person report that I have created to go into the alternate reality game being created for the freshmen English students. The other is a theft report.

According to Deputy John Smith at the Mayberry County Sheriff’s Office, a missing person report is used by police officers in the law enforcement discourse community to document a situation in which a person, 18 years of age or older, has gone missing. This type of police report can be filed as long as the person is believed to be in danger, has gone missing against their will, or is mentally disabled. A missing person report is considered to be an incident report. In an incident report, the person reporting is often a family member or a friend. It’s usually not the victim...

... middle of paper ...

...serve the same overall purpose of gathering and recording information into a database.

Works Cited

Bawarshi, Anis S. "Rhetorical Genre Studies Approaches to Teaching Writing." Genre and the Invention of the Writer: Reconsidering the Place of Invention in Composition. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2003. 195-96. Print.

"Incidents and Offenses." FBI. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.

"National Incident-Based Reporting System Resource Guide." National Incident-Based Reporting System Resource Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.

"ReadWrite." ReadWrite. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.

"Sean Stewart. Alternate Reality Games." Sean Stewart. Alternate Reality Games. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.

Smith, John. Personal interview. 22 Feb 2013.

Viridis, Marcello. "What Is the Purpose of a Police Report?" EHow. Demand Media, 29 Dec. 2009. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.

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