Believe it or not, more than one million home burglaries happen each year in the United States.

If you’ve ever experienced a residential break-in, then you know first-hand how frightening and traumatic this can be for families. After all, there’s nothing fun about home invaders damaging your property and stealing your valuables.

When this happens to your family, it’s important to understand how to handle the situation. This includes calling 911 and filing a police report. The process of reporting a crime can feel overwhelming. Fortunately, this article can help.

Here we take a look at how to file police reports so that law enforcement officers can begin working on the case. Keep reading to learn more.

What’s the Purpose of Police Reports?

Let’s start by discussing why it’s even necessary to file police reports when crimes have been committed.

Once you’ve called 911 and police officers have arrived, they will start the process of documenting exactly what happened. This will help them find and arrest the suspects involved in the crime, add serial numbers from stolen property to statewide databases, and track ongoing criminal activity in your community.

Police reports also provide a permanent record of every crime for future reference, including for use in criminal trials.

Where to Start

When a residential break-in is committed, it’s best to start by calling 911. Officers will come to your home and begin investigating the crime. This starts with asking a series of questions to get a grasp on the situation, and then they will begin filling out a form (police report) to document what happened and to gather witness statements.

It’s important to remember that you don’t necessarily have to call the police to file police reports. You can also visit a local police substation. This is often preferable when there’s no threat of danger or physical violence at the crime scene. An office at the substation will walk you through the process of filling out the forms so they can enter the information in their database.

What Type of Information Should Be Included?

The key to reporting a crime on police reports is to include as much specific information as possible. This includes serial numbers from any stolen property, descriptions of property damage, and full descriptions of how the residential break-in occurred and was discovered.

What Happens Next?

Once you’ve finished filing a police report, the information will be entered into a database that allows law enforcement officers to begin pursuing leads. Police reports are kept on file so that the details can be cross-referenced for locating the criminals responsible as well as to help recover the stolen property.

 

The Complete Guide to Filing a Police Report

It’s no secret that home burglary is one of the most traumatic events most homeowners will ever experience. Fortunately, this guide to the process of filing a police report will help you pursue justice for the crime that’s been committed.

Please contact us today to make an appointment with one of our home security specialists.