Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Would like to know. Thanks.

An incident report.

Offense report. 901-H (Dead Body), 666 (Suicide), 555 (Murder).

If it's anything but an accident or natural death, it goes on an incident report. Natural deaths and such go on person reports here.

beats me, called the coroner, thats his job.....

In my agency it's a Signal 7 (dead body) unless it's a Signal 5 (murder). They both go on offense reports.

As you can see OP it can be alot of things. For purposes of your show use any of the above.

We call the coroner, if it's natural causes they release the body by phone. If it appears suspicious they come to the scene and we would either notify the county police or state police, depending on which department I am working at. Either way all we would do is an incident report.


In my agency it's a Signal 7 (dead body) unless it's a Signal 5 (murder). They both go on offense reports.

So what is the offense if a 90 year old man has a heart attack??

So what is the offense if an 90 year old man has a heart attack??

I don't know about Marine's agency, but all reports here are titled offense report, (OR #) with a descriptor block in which the highest UCR crime is placed. For example, if a guy broke in to a house, raped and murdered the female victim, then burned the house down, the offense report would be titled Murder, with burglary, sexual assault and arson as lesser included crimes.

To answer your question, at least at my agency, an offense report would be taken, titled Death Investigation, with a clearance of Closed; Natural Death.

So what is the offense if an 90 year old man has a heart attack??

Not every offense report is an actual offense. We use the term "offense" report because any report we write has the format XXXXYYOFF123456 (where XXXX is our agency name acronym, YY is the last two digits of the year, and the last six numbers are in the order they are given out, starting at 000001 as the first one of the year). If I write an information report about something that's not a crime but should be documented, it still goes on an offense report. The title of the report would be whatever I used to code the call out, such as a 90 year old man who has a heart attack (with no foul play observed AND I can find a Dr who will sign the death certificate) would be a 28-0 Death Investigation: Physician Signs Death Cert., or if the same guy had either a bullet hole in him somewhere or a knife sticking out of him somewhere, it would be a 29-0 Death Investigation: Medical Examiner Case.

As in Cat_Doc's post, the highest crime would be the code of the call, but I can't imagine a higher crime than Murder.

Not every offense report is an actual offense. We use the term "offense" report because any report we write has the format XXXXYYOFF123456 (where XXXX is our agency name acronym, YY is the last two digits of the year, and the last six numbers are in the order they are given out, starting at 000001 as the first one of the year). If I write an information report about something that's not a crime but should be documented, it still goes on an offense report. The title of the report would be whatever I used to code the call out, such as a 90 year old man who has a heart attack (with no foul play observed AND I can find a Dr who will sign the death certificate) would be a 28-0 Death Investigation: Physician Signs Death Cert., or if the same guy had either a bullet hole in him somewhere or a knife sticking out of him somewhere, it would be a 29-0 Death Investigation: Medical Examiner Case.

As in Cat_Doc's post, the highest crime would be the code of the call, but I can't imagine a higher crime than Murder.

I think I know what you mean. Sounds similar to what we do with different terminology. For example not all our reports are considered incidents. If it's an arrest or something like a death investigation we turn it into one. At dept. 1 we simply click "make case" and it opens up a ton on things we can fill out (not all are necessary).

At dept. 2 we just enter it differently. Most calls are "log entries," where only minimum information is entered but anything of significance is entered in a separate screen as an "incident."

Same premise but different terminology...

Same premise but different terminology...

Yep. And I suspect all modern agencies work off the Part One and Part Two UCR codes. They are not required to do this, unless they want federal assistance funds or grants.

My first department only had three case status actions, Active, Inactive or Cleared.

An active case was just that, open and actively being investigated.

An inactive case did not have enough leads to work, but did not meet the requirements to be cleared. It could be designated active at any time if new leads surfaced, but was not a closed or cleared case.

A cleared case could only be done under the five accepted clearance descriptors according to UCR;

1. Cleared; Adult Arrest
2. Cleared:; Adult Exceptional
3. Cleared; Juvenile Arrest
4. Cleared; Juvenile Exceptional
5. Unfounded

When I came to the new agency I kind of freaked out a little on all the different case status descriptors they have in a system called Spillman. They have so many different case status designators it can drive you nuts.

I bleed tan and green now, but damn if I didn’t like the way the first department did it when I bled blue. I am a firm believer in the KISS theory; Keep It Simple Stupid.

the format XXXXYYOFF123456 (where XXXX is our agency name acronym, YY is the last two digits of the year, and the last six numbers are in the order they are given out, starting at 000001 as the first one of the year).

This is exactly the way my first department did it. The first case number of the year would be XXXX11-0001.

The agency I am with now uses something I think (?) is called the Julian calendar. The first two digits are the last two numbers of the year, the next two are the month, the next two are the days of the month and the last are the reports in sequential order. The first report of this year would have been XXXX110101001. The 30th call of today’s date would be report number 110416030. Clear as mud?

If it's obviously a natural death, we probably wouldn't even be called to the scene. Here the Medical Examiner sends out one of their DME's he/she and determines if the police need to be involved. If the person has been under a doctor's care and there is nothing suspicious, we don't get involved at all.

This is exactly the way my first department did it. The first case number of the year would be XXXX11-0001.

Similar to dept 2: This month would be 201104-000X

At dept. 1 you enter the call and it wil be C11-00001 and so on. If you make that call a case the "C" is removed and it then would have then number 11-00001.

Our brass handles the UCR info. We just enter names, narrative and charges. We also set the status: cleared by arrest, cleared without arrest, etc.

Some pretty interesting systems out there, as far as numbering cases and calls. For us, if it turns into a "case" then we use an OFFense number, described as I did above. If we're able to handle the call and don't feel the need to make a written report out of it, then it's just an "incident" and the OFF would be replaced with CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) number. ALL calls get a CAD number (anytime someone calls 911 or Dispatch to report something an individual CAD number is generated). Right now I believe we're up to around XXXX11CAD084000 calls. But only those incidents we turn into "cases" get the OFFense numbers, and right now we're near to 11,000 of those.


If it's obviously a natural death, we probably wouldn't even be called to the scene. Here the Medical Examiner sends out one of their DME's he/she and determines if the police need to be involved. If the person has been under a doctor's care and there is nothing suspicious, we don't get involved at all.

Here if they are actively under a medical professionals care, such as a hospice, hospital, or home hospice, where death is expected, we don't get involved at all and only a CAD number is generated. Should someone NOT under active care die of natural causes (say I drop dead at 44 of stress - which I'm having a lot of lately! LOL) then a Deputy would come to the house and do the Death Investigation: Dr. Signs. (That would also be dispatched as a Signal 7). Now say the officer was dispatched to my Signal 7 and found my shovel buried in my chest: He would call dispatch and say it's a Signal 5, secure the scene, and call for investigators.

Clear as mud?? :biggrin5:

I don't recall ever getting a call on a natural death other than in the form of "check on one not seen." Only if there is something suspicious. Even suicides go on what we call a "person' report, not an incident because it's not a crime. (Oddly enough, attempting to commit suicide used to be)

We have an excellent state medical examiner system here in Oregon. They respond to every death that isn't hospice, etc. and determine whether or not it's worth calling us.

Suicides are almost drivebys, the officer gets the call and has to have either a Sgt. or a detective come to the scene to verify it. If the ME turns up something in the autopsy to prove different, we take it, but that's rare. On drug OD deaths, we show up, nod our heads a lot, write a three line report and that's about it.

The worst thing about suicides is when it's a teenager and parents want to believe it's a murder. I've had them where the kid has locked the bedroom door from the inside, shot themselves in the head, the gun is still in their hand and the parents believe someone came into the house and murdered their child. I got a call a few weeks ago from a muck raking local reporter who's looking into one like that from 30+ years ago that I deemed a suicide. The kid was in his second story bedroom of an old Victorian house with the door locked from the inside with a hook and eye lock. I had to force the door open, but the parents are still convinced it was a murder. But that's getting off the subject, sorry.