At least in the last 15 years that I have been doing this we have been taught to get away from this stuff. Our speech may be a bit stilted with precise wording but we are supposed to write and talk like humans. It works better in court. In years past reports were written in the third person. “This officer” or “The above named officer arrived..” I was taught from the beginning to write in the first person.
The was how I was taught all the way back in the academy run by the state. My department might be a little ahead on such things. We rarely use number codes or jargon on the radio and speak in clear English.
Yes, but you could still use a set formula, and in fact use fewer, shorter words, if instead of “I proceeded to approach the vehicle” you wrote “I walked to the car”, and so on.
Mind you, a police report written like that just wouldn’t look right, because that’s not how we’re used to seeing them written. Which I suspect is why they’re not written that way!
I also hate how the police refer to the citizenry as “civilians’ as the police are civilians also (unless they are in the Army reserve or something, of course).
To me approaching connotes a purpose. If I was walking to a car with intent such as during a car stop I would write “I approached”. If I was walking somewhere and happened to observe something I would write “I walked”.
You are entitled to your opinion. The dictionary does not agree with you.
[QUOTE=Merriam-Webster]
. a : one not on active duty in the armed services or not on a police or firefighting force
You could call it cop speak instead of jargon, but it’s a way of speaking that is specific to police and in some cases to journalists who cover the police beat and want to sound official. Another formulation a lot of police use is putting race before gender instead of the other way around: “suspect is a male white,” for example.
I think there’s usually a comma in there. It’s not ‘make white’ it’s ‘male <pause> white’ because that’s the way you’d fill out the form, check the ‘sex’ box, then the ‘race’ box.
Yes, usage has recently added that definition in the USA. Why? Because the police use it. :rolleyes: http://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_cha_chapter1_rule5
“Rule 5. Definition of Civilians
Rule 5. Civilians are persons who are not members of the armed forces. The civilian population comprises all persons who are civilians.
…The definition of civilians as persons who are not members of the armed forces is set forth in Article 50 of Additional Protocol I, to which no reservations have been made.[1] It is also contained in numerous military manuals.[2] It is reflected in reported practice.[3] This practice includes that of States not, or not at the time, party to Additional Protocol I.[4]”
Theft is unlawful taking of property with intent to deprive the owner of the property permanently. The teenage neighbor who takes your car for a joy ride and then returns it before you find out has not committed a theft.
Burglary does not necessarily require stealing. Burglary is generally an illegal entry to a premises with intent to commit another crime. Exact definition may vary slightly by jurisdiction.
Robbery involves use of force, threat of use of force, or instilling fear in a person in an attempt to steal. If you come home to find your home has been broken into and ransacked but you never see the perpetrator then you have not been robbed, you have been burglarized.
Ages ago in journalism class, I recall a reporter on the police beat who characterized the police blotter writing style as a “curious mixture of illiteracy and overelaboration.”* We were warned against inadvertently allowing their terminology to seep into articles we’d write based on police reports.
Uh huh. Sorry the ICRC does not define English. They are stating what the word means with regards to certain specific international treaties. Not what the word means in the English language. You give one non-liguistic cite. I can keep showing you multiple dictionary definitions if you want. I don’t know exactly when it began to pertain to police but it certainly didn’t happen recently and not because a small group of people were using it. That is the definition. If you wish to keep pissing in the ocean thats your prerogative. But they are using the world correctly by its definition. And by the way the origin of the word had nothing to do with the military. It was originally a practitioner of civil law. Hmm I wonder what is closer to the original definition? Kindly reserve the roll eyes for when you are actually correct. :rolleyes:
It’s not too hard to find examples online. Here’s a police blotter from Skokie. “Male black” occurs several times. Also there’s a report about a guy getting bitten by a prostitute, so … there’s that. Here’s a more local example (PDF). Maybe this is common in some places and not others.
Its not just, or even mostly, the terminology. Pronouns don’t work well in a report. If you have 4 people in a report it may be unclear (or the defense could pretend that it was unclear to make you look bad) if you ever use, “He said.” So I could have five sentences in a row which start with “Mr Smith stated.”* I’m sure you can see how this might not make for exciting reading.
*Not a rule but I always use “stated” when I’m paraphrasing and “said” when I am going to use a direct quote.
Well I didn’t point and yell, “Liar!” I figured you had seen it before. I just never have. And seeing it in context it looks pretty bad. Especially the way the first example is written. It sounds racist. He’s not a male, he’s a black who happens to be male. Black as the noun male as the adjective. Maybe its a regional thing but we don’t talk that way. Black male, white female etc.
And the male/female thing has a reason. Sometimes the sex might be apparent but the age isn’t. A suspect may be described as male but the age is not known. Do you say man when it could be a 13 year old child? When do you make that age cut off from boy to man? And of course the word boy has a bad history so you certainly wouldn’t put that in a police report as a descriptor. Its just easier and many times more accurate to say male/female.
Joseph Wambaugh, The Choirboys: “Don’t hassle me about using long words, Roscoe. It was the academy that taught me long words like hemorrhage and defecation.”