I’m working on a short story that will have sections written from several different perspectives. Since it deals with a murder, I will need one section to provide the reader with a certain amount of crime-scene information. I thought one good way to get this across would be to “quote” an excerpt from the police department’s case book. The problem is that I would like this to be a least somewhat realistic, but I have no idea how a "typical"casebook is put together. I mean, are there agreed upon standards, or does each police department pretty much do it their own way? Is it filled with handwritten notes scribbed on coffee-stained napkins? Or are there daily logsheets? What kind of terminology is typically used? Are things written in formal language or terse, jargon-filled entries? I’m talking about a fairly low-tech investigation, BTW, not CSI.
Can anyone point me to a good online source for this kind of information?
I don’t know about online, but there are books that could help you out. Might try looking at the library or the bookstore.
For example, there’s Police Procedural, which you can get used for 5 bucks.
You really mght also try poking around in the Law/Police section of your local bookstore - just to see if there’s any law enforcement books that could give you some ideas/references.
Never seen a “casebook” at work. Don’t think they exist. They got this new thing, it’s called a computer… At work I have a little notebook, in it I put the subjects name, DOB, address, etc. Anything else goes in the computer in the narrative portion of the report. Other updates get put in as a suplement to the original report. Notebooks are a pain in the ass because they are discoverable in court but they are not kept as part of the report in records. If you pull out a notebook in court the defense hasn’t looked at it all hell will break loose. No one I know keeps apersonal notebook.