LA CARLOTA CITY COLLEGE

COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

CDI 5 TECHNICAL ENGLISH 1

POLICE BLOTTER

Police Blotter – is a record of daily events occurring within the territory and jurisdiction of a
given police unit or command. It contains material details concerning the event for legal and
statistical purposes.
Form and Size – the police blotter shall be a record book with hard cover and shall be 12 inches
by 16 inches in size.
WRITING A POLICE BLOTTER ENTRY

 Before deciding to write reported information inside the police blotter, police officers,
especially rookies or those who are not used to recording information inside police
blotters, should get a piece of paper, jot down all 5 W’s and 1 H, answer them all, and
then construct the paragraph. Afterward, the immediate supervisor should check it before
it is finally written into the police blotter in order to minimize errors because he could be
equally held accountable to the police blotter entry, together with the police officer who
made the blotter entry.
 The duty of the police investigator is to gather all pertinent information regarding the
incident. Thus, it is premature and inappropriate to state in the police blotter entry or in
the spot report that the crime happened is murder, homicide, theft, robbery, malicious
mischief or whatever because the proper classification of the crime has not yet been
established. In addition, the police officer is not in the right position to say so unless there
is an endorsement from prosecution. What the police officer should do is to describe in
detail how the crime was committed. Fr example; if the officer has in mind that the crime
committed is robbery because of the presence of force upon things and or violence or
intimidation against person, what he has to do is to describe how the robbery or the force
upon things or the violence or intimidation against person happened. Hence, it is better if
the officer will just state in his report:
“Juan Tamad y Talaga Jr., 29 years old, married, a grade 3 dropout and a resident at #3
Purok 2. Kiangan St., Hingyon, Benguet, while under the influence of intoxicating liquor,
went to the house of Miss Pipita Juan at #9 Raul St., Hingyon, Benguet and seeing that
there was no person inside the house, forcefully destroyed the back door of said house by
means of crow bar and a hydraulic jack, went inside and took ten (10) 14-inch brand new
Acer laptops with a total estimated cost of Three hundred thousand (300, 000) pesos,
moved out from said house and ran away toward Session RD.”…
 In robbery, the manner of destroying any part of the house that constitutes the “force
upon things” and using it as entrance should be clearly described. The same should be
done if the robbery was committed with violence or intimidation against person.
 Police officers should not anticipate the opinion of the prosecution. For example; in a
report, the police officer stated that “the suspect committed the crime of murder because
of the presence of the qualifying circumstances of treachery and evident premeditation.”
What the officer should have done was to clearly describe how the treachery or evident
premeditation happened. So, if the suspect approached the victim from behind and
attacked him immediately without giving him the opportunity to defend himself, then this
should be the fact that should be well described in the report.
 Whenever personal properties are involved in a crime like robbery, theft, or malicious
mischief, the approximate worth of the properties should be indicated because the worth
is sometimes important in the determining the penalty of certain offenses.
 In crimes against chastity, the real names of the victims and suspects, especially minors
are withheld in order to protect their dignity.

The following are incidents or transactions to be entered into the police blotter:
1. Violations of laws and ordinances reported and recorded.
2. All calls in which any member of the PNP is dispatched or takes official action.
3. All fire alarms, report and information received by the action.
4. Movements of prisoners with corresponding notations on the authority for such movements.
5. Cases of missing and found persons, animals and properties.
6. Vehicular and other types of accidents, which require police station.
7. All personal injuries, bodies found, and suicides.
8. Damage to properties.
9. All cases in which a police member is involved.
10.All arrests and returns made.
11.Miscellaneous cases, general and special orders, violations of rules and regulations.
12.Any other reportable incident that the chief or higher authority desires to be recorded.
Procedures in making entries into the Police blotter:
1. All entries into the police blotter shall be handwritten in clear, concise and simple manner but
must answer as far as practicable the 5 W’S and 1 H.
2. Only facts are entered into the blotter.
3. No erasures shall be made on the entries. Corrections are made by drawing a horizontal line
across such word or phrase and initiated by the police officer making the correction.
4. A ball pen or pen with blue, black or blue-black ink is used for making the entries.
5. Misrepresentation in the blotter or any attempt to suppress any information is punishable
criminally and administratively.
6. All entries must be legibly written in longhand and consecutively numbered.
7. Every page of the blotter shall be consecutively and chronologically filled up. No line or
space shall be left blank between any two entries.
8. Any development of the case to be reflected in the blotter shall be a new entry at the time and
day it was reported. A reference to the previous entry number of the case should be made.
9. During every shift, the duty sergeant under the supervision of the duty officer or complaint
desk officer shall make the actual entries on the blotter and at the end of their tour of duty, both
shall sign the police blotter.
Essential elements a Police Blotter Entry Who – What – When – Where – Why – How –
Motive – Officer on case
In answering 5 W’s and 1H and the case disposition, all material details about the event, including:
 name/s of the suspect/s; victim/s; witnesse/s, if any
 nature of action or offense; the possible motive;
 place, date and time of occurrence;
 significant circumstances that aggravate or mitigate the event or;
 the crime should be entered along with the identity of the officer towhom the case is
assigned ( officer-incase); and, the status of thecase.
POLICE BLOTTER ENTRY SAMPLE
ENTRY DATE TIME INCIDENT/EVENT DISPOSITION
NO.
1005 September 8:30 On or about 4:30 o’clock in the Incident was
27, 2013 PM afternoon on September 27, 2013 inside referred to Duty
Room S503, University of Cordillera, Investigator for
Gov. Pack Road, Bakun, Benguet, Juan further
Tamad y Talaga alias Junjun, 45 years investigation
old, single, a 2nd year student of the and filing of
College of Criminology and a resident appropriate case
at #34 Honey Rd, Baguio City stabbed if warranted.
three (3) times at his back Emilio Luna
y Aguinaldo, 65 years old, a college P/Cprl
instructor of the same school mentioned Christopher B.
above and a resident at #5 Rimando Cataga
Rd., Baguio City. Jose Rizal y DUTY
Mercado, 35 years old, third year INVESTIGATO
student of the same college and school R
and a resident at Poblacion Dos, Bakun,
Benguet stated when he reported the
incident to the police station that he
was sitting in front Mr. Luna, who was
then busy checking quiz papers, when
he saw Juan Tamad, with a 24 - inch-
long, double bladed Kapangan-made
knife in his right hand, approached Mr
Luna from behind and without any
word, stabbed hm in his back three (3)
times. He further stated that when the
victim (Mr Luna) dropped on the floor,
he (Juan) kicked him on his body two
(2) times, spat on his face and ran away
while saying, “dayta ti gunguman nga
babaero.” Jose then asked the help from
other students and they brought the
victim to the Baguio General Hospital,
but he was declared dead on arrival by
the attending physician. Motive:
Jealousy.
LA CARLOTA CITY COLLEGE
COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
CDI 5 TECHNICAL ENGLISH 1

POLICE REPORT

WRITING ACTIVITY ON POLICE BLOTTER ENTRY- DRAFT

NAME:___________________________________ YR/SET:_______________DATE:______

ENTRY DATE TIME INCIDENT/EVENT DISPOSITION

NO.
Instruction for your writing activity on the previous page. Create a police blotter entry by
following the sample given above. Print out your work and pass it on next week.
Note: Please passed it together with your words to ponder activity for this week which is letter
L and M. Thank you.