Paperwork time?

[Michelles]

I'm wondering how much time is spent on LEO's filling out and doing paperwork? The reason I am asking is, I want to see if it would be beneficial to LEO's for a current idea I have.

[Old Trooper]

Depending on agency, position, workload, etc., there can be a TON or two of paperwork!

[JR_23]

A Misdemeanor arrest is about an hour of paperwork (I usually cite and release)...a DUI/DUID is about 2 hours, a Felony is about three hours.

When there's more than 10 pieces of evidence (not to often for me), that adds another hour. When there's a search warrant involved, it adds another 30 minutes-1 hour depending on the judge and number of items recovered. An arrest warrant takes about 15 minutes to draft the affidavit, but again depends on the judge.

This is only if you have time to only do the paper...as you probably know, anything can happen when you're in the middle of a report. I learned early to do all of the paperwork you can immediately...your memory is fresh, and when your friday comes you can go home on time.

[Michelles]

Do you think if the paperwork was cut down to 50% or less it would be favorable?

I'm hoping that if I can do this it would be a help to the LEO's and stations. But in the same, I do not know if cutting back 50% time spent on paperwork would
be a bad idea in anyway.

[sbrad]

Do you think if the paperwork was cut down to 50% or less it would be favorable?

I'm hoping that if I can do this it would be a help to the LEO's and stations. But in the same, I do not know if cutting back 50% time spent on paperwork would
be a bad idea in anyway.

I don't see how you could keep from having to get warrants, write incident reports, tag and drop evidence, write citations, complete pre-bookings and keep an activity log.

[Joeyd6]

Cutting paperwork is beneficial...but is there is paperwork...there is a reason for it all. And some we do, must be done by an officer. Cicilian aides can take basic police walk-in police reports with us, but only an officer can take a felony.

What is your idea? We'll give you feedback!

[Michelles]

I'm checking into how I can help cut down the longer paperwork that LE would have to fill out by hand at the station.
Unless, the department units have printers in them.


My idea is to turn the paperwork into an automative form. Only LE could see or would have the confidential information. So if for example you went to the station and had to finish up a TC report, you could go into the computer bring up the TC form, put in Jane Doe & John Doe and it would automatically fill in her and his address, DOB, DL, and what not. You could also change the information in any field if needed.

Does the idea sound good so far?

[ChesCopPodz]

We already have it.

Our incident reports are done over the phone to our records room. They are typed into the computer and are available to view at the computers in my station. Accident reports can be done on the computer and printed out, as can warrants, juvenile reports, etc.

[Rad Diver]

Example:

I went on duty at 3:00 pm, usually I'm on duty at 2:00pm but had to go to court today, my first call was at 3:15. A battery-domestic violence involving a juvenile as my arrestee. With my agency being CALEA certified there is 7 pieces of paperwork to complete, before I take the arrestee to jail. Then there is my report time, total with pics of crime scene, victims, and paperwork (includes affidavits and driving time) was 3 hours. Juveniles in my county are the biggest pain to arrest, and then couple that with a dv case and bam the time triples.

[JR_23]

Domestic's here are another animal...with our Judicial District, and our Agencie's tendancy towards redundant/meaningless paperwork. A DV with juvenilles and pets (yes, more paper, phone calls, and faxing if hubby kicks the dog) will tie up the majority of a 12 hour shift. Add calling up victims advocates, it's a nightmare.

DV's suck :D .

[JR_23]

Edit: To answer your question, yes it would help. Filling out the suspects,victims, reporting parties, and witnesses personal information 300 times starts to drive any normal human being insane. Cops aren't normal people, but you know...

[mcsap]

Our crash reporting system fills in any info that we entered on the first page which is requested again on a subsequent page.

[Joeyd6]

We are pretty much online with most of our forms....but the brass still wants a "scratch" or paper copy for the file cabinets in the basement. So we must hand write them and then still sit and enter it.

[Charlie]

Sorry Michelles, this idea is already out there... :( The idea of reducing LEO paperwork has been addressed for years. And in many cases, there are some excellent software programs out there that can migrate data, such as names and addresses, to other sections of paper work forms to reduce repetitive entry and things of that nature. One thing you must also keep in mind is that the amount of paperwork varies from one jurisdiction to the next. There is no universal forms/paperwork requirments that ALL LEO's use in all jurisdictions. Depending upon the case at hand, you may not have to write up a lot of paperwork for a given case in one jurisdiction BUT, in another jurisdiction where an identical situation arises, the LEO's there may have to fill out a significant amount of paperwork. So, it's not a universal thing. Cutting paperwork down is an old problem that has, and always will dominate, the LE profession. It's all part of doing the job... I applaude you for teh idea but unfortunately, someone else already thought of it! Nice try!
--
Charlie

[Michelles]

Thank you all for your replies! They have been very helpful!
Turning anyone’s department’s paperwork into a database form would not be a problem, but if you have to have a hand written copy, the idea would not help you save you to much time.
I’m not giving up yet though.
In the next couple of months I am going to help run a more in depth idea across a sheriff headquarters in my area. If it takes and works well, I hope that it will help all the LE departments. If not, well I still have the idea of making aeronautical LE shoes. ;)