I detest any police department that tries to conceal public information. Federal laws prohibit the destruction of most police reports. If the only report is a written report, it should not be destroyed for several years, but if there is a backup copy sitting on a server somewhere then I see no need to keep the written report. We do need to keep in mind that privacy laws also come into play. When grand juries are involved, police reports are crucial evidence for both sides and if any health issues are included in such reports, the HIPPA Laws then also require additional subpoena action to obtain them. It is a complicated mess that requires what is called 'Special Handling" because of its potential sensitive nature. After the computer age came into my life, I, along with several other Troopers, began saving our written reports on a flash drive. It wasn't necessarily done to make sure that no one changed or added anything to any of my reports, but then again, I have been involved with some smaller police offices that were engaged in this kind of hanky panky. After all, after an officer retires, anyone can do whatever with the report and if litigation becomes involved and the retired officer may be dead, what proof does anyone have that something was changed? First rule is to never write a report in pencil and secondly, save your work.
I could write a book about police reports and all that we are required to keep "under wraps" for various reasons. Most times when a major crime, or accident has been committed the press will be the first in line to acquire a police report. My concern with police reports is not what goes in the report, but what does not go in the report. This is what sometimes really irks defense attorneys when they try to gather evidence and then at discovery the officer that wrote the report will add additional facts to the report that should have been included from the beginning, but because the officer was tired or maybe just forgetful, did not include a fact or two until he either went to a discovery hearing or gave testimony before a grand jury or court itself.
And yet, it seems like it should be a simple task, but I have known Troopers to spend several hours of their own time catching up with writing reports.
