Is It Legal to Omit Information From Written Police Incident Reports?

Police officers are accountable to the public.

In most police departments, the officer responding to a complaint is required to file a an incident report detailing the particulars of the incident. Incident reports may also be filed for incidents observed by the officer without a formal complaint, or where the officer is technically the complainant. The obligation of a police officer to file a report (and to ensure that it is complete) may arise in several different ways.

Statutory Obligation

A police officer may be required by state or federal law to file an incident report, and the statute may specify the kinds of information that must be included, and the penalties or consequences for failure to do so. As every state has its own legal code, and different federal law enforcement agencies may be affected by different federal legislation, the particular requirements imposed on a police officer may also vary from state to state. In some cases, federal laws can affect local police agencies in surprising ways; for example, the Clery Act affects campus security of universities receiving federal funding.

Contractual Obligation

In most cases, statutes will impose the duty to keep records on the police agency or organization, rather than on individual police officers. As employees of these agencies, however, police officers will be under a contractual obligation, as a term of their employment, to adhere to department policies and procedures. Failure to observe these procedures (such as by omitting required information from a report, for example) could be a violation of the officer's duty, constituting a breach of contract and possible grounds for disciplinary action or dismissal.

Tort

In the common law tradition, if one person harms another through negligence, the victim may sue in tort for compensation. Conceivably, then, if a police officer's omission of some important piece of information from an incident report causes injury to someone, the officer could be liable in tort. Again, tort law varies from state to state, but as a general principle, police officers should act with due care for the foreseeable consequences of their act or omissions.

Practical Responsibility

Even in the absence of specific direct statutory, contractual or tort obligations, practical considerations may militate against the omission of information from an incident report. That is, even if it may not violate any particular law, it may still be a bad move to leave out the information. For example, failure to make a full and complete report might lead to suspicions of corruption, even if never proven.

References

• Virginia State Code: Certain Records to be Kept by Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police
• United States Code: Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act