Law Enforcement: The Importance Of Documentation

Modern law enforcement is a science, with technology and methods that put the old ways to shame. We still rely heavily on citizen complaints, but instead of simply waiting for crimes to be reported, as the old village policeman used to do, we now analyze data to predict when and where they will occur. Instead of just roaming the streets randomly, we use crime statistics to plan patrol routes. This doesn't require high-tech equipment, but it is scientific. With the power of information, law enforcers can identify areas where crimes are likely to occur, and then increase police coverage in those areas, drastically improving their chances of preventing more crimes, and possibly even catching a few bad guys red-handed.

The information the police need to make this analysis effective, and indeed, the information they need to fight crime in general, comes primarily from one source: the citizen complaint. Ordinary Filipinos filing reports of crimes they either witnessed or experienced.

Whether they receive these reports through an anonymous telephone call or by a personal visit to the local police station, the police record every complaint in the station "blotter", and sometimes follow up with a more detailed incident report. Blotters and incident reports serve two main purposes. First, they document the facts of an incident, and serve as a basis for further investigation. Secondly, and possibly more importantly, they provide valuable data that can be analyzed to help predict when and where other crimes may occur, and to evaluate police effectiveness. The key to making this work properly is to record every incident, and to use a standardized format to make the analysis meaningful.

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to file a few police reports at my local precinct. The "blotter" in which those reports were recorded was typically a hardbound notebook, the kind available at any bookstore. Each time, the complaint was written in a single paragraph, without any subject, headings, or keywords. Only the time was written to the left of each entry. I once went to a local police station to get information about an incident that had happened a few months before, but I didn't know the exact date. To find the correct blotter entry, the officer had to scan the text of 10 or 20 pages. It was obvious that the blotter was not organized to locate information easily. In fact, it was not organized at all. Without labels to distinguish one entry from another, it would be nearly impossible to collect the information into any kind of report to higher headquarters. And yet the police routinely announce that, according to crime statistics, "there were 97 cell phone thefts reported this month". From the blotters I've seen, it would require a full-time employee at each station to gather those statistics regularly. We have to assume then, that the statistics reported by the PNP are not even close to the real crime situation in the country.

The way the system really works is this: When someone files a complaint at a police station, the information goes in the blotter. If he chooses to do so, the complainant can file a formal report, but it will take more time, and of course there is a "filing fee" involved. The average citizen doesn't see the need for the extra effort, and usually leaves the process at this point. The problem is, only the formal reports are counted when compiling crime statistics. The more numerous blotter entries, which actually give a more accurate picture of current conditions, are simply hand-written into a book which eventually gets filed away.

If crime data can't be accurately reported, how can it possibly be analyzed? There are simple procedures, used by police departments around the world, that the PNP can adopt to immediately improve this situation, without the need for expensive, high-tech equipment. By enforcing simple guidelines, blotter entries can be formatted with standardized headings, designed to make statistical analysis more effective. Higher headquarters, at several levels, can collect and analyze this information daily.

Crime trends and statistics are not simply for reporting purposes. Professional law enforcement agencies use such information to plan their counter-attack against criminal elements. But the data has to be accurate, and it has to be accessible, or the entire process is useless.