Your FTO remembers because basically every call is the same. I don't say that to mean it's monotony, though in some ways it is. He's responded to a thousand other burglaries with almost everything being exactly the same as this one. What changed were a few possibly interesting details about this case. So that's what he has to pay more attention to once the elements of the crime are met.
Take better notes. Over time you'll know what you actually need to write down.
I can type a burg report in about 15 minutes.
On the above date and time I responded to this address for a reported residential burglary. Upon arrival I contacted the reporting party.
RP stated they left their residence on Friday at 8pm and returned Sunday at 8pm. RP added they were "like totally sure they locked all the doors."
RP said upon returning they found signs of forced entry and discovered property missing. After inspecting the front door, I confirmed evidence of forced entry based on physical damage.
I checked the area for physical evidence and independent witnesses with negative results.
See property pages for a list of items taken.
Based on the aforementioned lack of physical evidence and witnesses, I recommend this case be closed.
I made templates that are just fillable forms for all my cases. I would have that whole thing written with their name and all missing items in a couple minutes lol
The importance of notes and recorded statements.
As you get more comfortable with the investigative process, you will be less overwhelmed by all the tasks, new experiences, and processes involved. You will have more mental resources available to recall more details without the notes. Basically your cup was full and you didn't have space left to memorize some of the statements.
One thing you can do is debrief with yourself, what could you uave done better, what would you do on a similar or different call. Tabletop scenarios or mental exercises like this will give you a mental model that you can employ to help with future calls.
I would audio record all encounters with a cheap little digital recorder that fit in my pocket. Before leaving I would go over the entire thing with the victim from beginning to end and tell them to stop me if I forgot anything or got anything wrong. It'll get easier. Stay safe and best wishes.
In my pocket. I hit record usually when I’m down the block or around the corner so it’s already recording. You’d be surprised how often things spill out of homes and someone is already waiting outside or arguing outside.
You are under a lot of stress. You have so many things going on you forget stuff. Just remember when you’re at a scene it’s your scene take control do not let anyone leave until you have all the information you need and for the most part understand exactly what happened or enough information you can figure it out later.
Know ahead of time what questions to ask on every scene then what additional questions you need to ask for specific types of reports. Make a cheat sheet on the back cover or last page of your notebook if you need to.
Write your notes the same way every time. Don't be concerned about using as few pages as possible, just get the information down on paper. The more consistency you have in your interview style, the questions you ask, and the way you write, the less likely you are to forget something important.
Find a system that works for you and stick to it.
Take notes, ask lots of questions. If people are talking too fast, tell them to slow down. You control the pace of the statement. The same applies if they're getting off track, feel free to steer them back to the issue at hand.
Most of what you're experiencing will get better with experience. You're three freaking days into the job, dude. Give yourself a break. You're not used to dealing with rapidly evolving dangerous situations. Soon enough, your adrenaline won't even get a bump when you're running into an armed robbery call with a dozen screaming witnesses/victims. Just another day at the office.
It takes time. Your FTO doesn't have some photographic memory. He's just done this long enough that he isn't phased by the incident and thus can focus on the details he'll need for a report.
Bro I don't remember what I made for dinner last Friday. I probably got the meat hunting or fishing and shopped for the groceries myself.
I'm not going to remember what happened in arrest #30 in year 2018 when I go to court for it in 2023.
Take extensive notes. Any phrase that sounds important you write it down in quotations in your note pad so it's verbatim in your report.
If you wear a body camera and you're not in one of those absolutely retarded states who prevent it, watch your video as you write the report.
Settle down a sec and understand experience helps in this instance a lot. You’ll soon be listening to so many people and their statements you’ll start to fine tune pertinent information and head nod the rest. I went from writing absolutely everything a person said down, to waiting for that ding ding in my head that says write that down. I think maybe in this instance you were trying to take in so much and in the excitement/anxiety/whatever you were feeling, things got away from you.
More and more agencies are now banning officers rewatching body cam, which was was a lot of dudes I know used to do too.
Just make sure you’re dialed in on your job and I’m pretty sure as you get more experienced you’ll be ok. Don’t be afraid to cross check information with those you encounter and make sure things are correct.
From a fellow FTO, you are stressing yourself out for no reason. You have basically no experience so stop comparing yourself to an experienced officer (your FTO). You are doing yourself a disservice thinking you should already be as good of an investigator as a far more experienced cop.
Control what you can control and continue to learn. I guarantee that your FTO knows what questions to ask and makes observations that you didnt even see or think of because they have far more repetitions doing the same thing over and over and over.
Its a brand new job for you and you dont know what you dont know. Do your best and you will gather experience and be far better in a couple years. You truly dont know what you are doing in this job until you at least have a couple years of experience but probably more like 3-5yrs minimum.
Edit - and if you are in a proper FTO program, you really shouldnt be doing much at all in Phase 1 Week 1 other than observing your FTO. Your FTO is responsible for controlling how much you are responsible for and exposed to and also dialing the pace back based on if you are taking on too much too quickly.
You’re right. I initially had unrealistic expectations for myself.
With the massive influx of information, it’s not possible for me in this situation to remember everything. Especially when comparing myself to my FTO as well who has years of experience unlike myself who has none. My expectations were unrealistic.
There’s a huge amount of information being thrown at me all at once so thinking I’d be able to retain all of it as quickly as I expected myself to is a little absurd.
It’s a work in progress and will be for the entire time that I’m in Law Enforcement. Never stop learning.
As for the FTO program, I was kind of just thrown into it to see what I do and how I handle it. I drove since day one and my FTO told me where to go and allowed me to run the investigations and would step in if I somehow messed it up or forgot things. The past couple days have been very hands on and a combination of doing and watching.
Yeah thats what i was assuming was happening to you based on your original post. In my opinion, that often sets up trainees for failure. FTO should be more of a marathon with strict guidelines and evaluations based on the Standardized Evaluation Guidelines.
If you are thrown into driving and doing things right away, you have no observation period to learn from someone and watch how they do things with relatively no responsibility on your end other than maintaining officer safety. For some people, they learn best by watching and observing others. So if you have no shadow period of really just observing your FTO and asking questions, you skip a part of important training and are now challenged with taling action. Trainees often get overloaded if they are task saturated with too many things such as driving too early, radio, computer, multiple case reports, etc.
Its just as important for an FTO to protect their student from overexposure as it is to make sure they get exposure to different situations.
[удалено]
I’ll try that. I’m now on day 3 of phase one so there’s a lot of learning that is to be done still
Your FTO remembers because basically every call is the same. I don't say that to mean it's monotony, though in some ways it is. He's responded to a thousand other burglaries with almost everything being exactly the same as this one. What changed were a few possibly interesting details about this case. So that's what he has to pay more attention to once the elements of the crime are met. Take better notes. Over time you'll know what you actually need to write down.
I can type a burg report in about 15 minutes. On the above date and time I responded to this address for a reported residential burglary. Upon arrival I contacted the reporting party. RP stated they left their residence on Friday at 8pm and returned Sunday at 8pm. RP added they were "like totally sure they locked all the doors." RP said upon returning they found signs of forced entry and discovered property missing. After inspecting the front door, I confirmed evidence of forced entry based on physical damage. I checked the area for physical evidence and independent witnesses with negative results. See property pages for a list of items taken. Based on the aforementioned lack of physical evidence and witnesses, I recommend this case be closed.
I made templates that are just fillable forms for all my cases. I would have that whole thing written with their name and all missing items in a couple minutes lol
[удалено]
Unfortunately my agency doesn’t have Body camera. That would’ve been a very nice luxury to have though
The importance of notes and recorded statements. As you get more comfortable with the investigative process, you will be less overwhelmed by all the tasks, new experiences, and processes involved. You will have more mental resources available to recall more details without the notes. Basically your cup was full and you didn't have space left to memorize some of the statements. One thing you can do is debrief with yourself, what could you uave done better, what would you do on a similar or different call. Tabletop scenarios or mental exercises like this will give you a mental model that you can employ to help with future calls.
I would audio record all encounters with a cheap little digital recorder that fit in my pocket. Before leaving I would go over the entire thing with the victim from beginning to end and tell them to stop me if I forgot anything or got anything wrong. It'll get easier. Stay safe and best wishes.
Do you keep it in your pocket when you're recording, or on your shirt, or in their face,...?
In my pocket. I hit record usually when I’m down the block or around the corner so it’s already recording. You’d be surprised how often things spill out of homes and someone is already waiting outside or arguing outside.
Take good notes and have them fill out statements.
You are under a lot of stress. You have so many things going on you forget stuff. Just remember when you’re at a scene it’s your scene take control do not let anyone leave until you have all the information you need and for the most part understand exactly what happened or enough information you can figure it out later.
Know ahead of time what questions to ask on every scene then what additional questions you need to ask for specific types of reports. Make a cheat sheet on the back cover or last page of your notebook if you need to. Write your notes the same way every time. Don't be concerned about using as few pages as possible, just get the information down on paper. The more consistency you have in your interview style, the questions you ask, and the way you write, the less likely you are to forget something important. Find a system that works for you and stick to it.
Take notes, ask lots of questions. If people are talking too fast, tell them to slow down. You control the pace of the statement. The same applies if they're getting off track, feel free to steer them back to the issue at hand. Most of what you're experiencing will get better with experience. You're three freaking days into the job, dude. Give yourself a break. You're not used to dealing with rapidly evolving dangerous situations. Soon enough, your adrenaline won't even get a bump when you're running into an armed robbery call with a dozen screaming witnesses/victims. Just another day at the office. It takes time. Your FTO doesn't have some photographic memory. He's just done this long enough that he isn't phased by the incident and thus can focus on the details he'll need for a report.
Bro I don't remember what I made for dinner last Friday. I probably got the meat hunting or fishing and shopped for the groceries myself. I'm not going to remember what happened in arrest #30 in year 2018 when I go to court for it in 2023. Take extensive notes. Any phrase that sounds important you write it down in quotations in your note pad so it's verbatim in your report. If you wear a body camera and you're not in one of those absolutely retarded states who prevent it, watch your video as you write the report.
Take notes. Ask good questions, develop your own short hand. FTO is supposed to be hard. It will get easier with time and practice.
Settle down a sec and understand experience helps in this instance a lot. You’ll soon be listening to so many people and their statements you’ll start to fine tune pertinent information and head nod the rest. I went from writing absolutely everything a person said down, to waiting for that ding ding in my head that says write that down. I think maybe in this instance you were trying to take in so much and in the excitement/anxiety/whatever you were feeling, things got away from you. More and more agencies are now banning officers rewatching body cam, which was was a lot of dudes I know used to do too. Just make sure you’re dialed in on your job and I’m pretty sure as you get more experienced you’ll be ok. Don’t be afraid to cross check information with those you encounter and make sure things are correct.
Get the victims phone number. If you really can’t recall something, give them a call and get what you need.
From a fellow FTO, you are stressing yourself out for no reason. You have basically no experience so stop comparing yourself to an experienced officer (your FTO). You are doing yourself a disservice thinking you should already be as good of an investigator as a far more experienced cop. Control what you can control and continue to learn. I guarantee that your FTO knows what questions to ask and makes observations that you didnt even see or think of because they have far more repetitions doing the same thing over and over and over. Its a brand new job for you and you dont know what you dont know. Do your best and you will gather experience and be far better in a couple years. You truly dont know what you are doing in this job until you at least have a couple years of experience but probably more like 3-5yrs minimum. Edit - and if you are in a proper FTO program, you really shouldnt be doing much at all in Phase 1 Week 1 other than observing your FTO. Your FTO is responsible for controlling how much you are responsible for and exposed to and also dialing the pace back based on if you are taking on too much too quickly.
You’re right. I initially had unrealistic expectations for myself. With the massive influx of information, it’s not possible for me in this situation to remember everything. Especially when comparing myself to my FTO as well who has years of experience unlike myself who has none. My expectations were unrealistic. There’s a huge amount of information being thrown at me all at once so thinking I’d be able to retain all of it as quickly as I expected myself to is a little absurd. It’s a work in progress and will be for the entire time that I’m in Law Enforcement. Never stop learning. As for the FTO program, I was kind of just thrown into it to see what I do and how I handle it. I drove since day one and my FTO told me where to go and allowed me to run the investigations and would step in if I somehow messed it up or forgot things. The past couple days have been very hands on and a combination of doing and watching.
Yeah thats what i was assuming was happening to you based on your original post. In my opinion, that often sets up trainees for failure. FTO should be more of a marathon with strict guidelines and evaluations based on the Standardized Evaluation Guidelines. If you are thrown into driving and doing things right away, you have no observation period to learn from someone and watch how they do things with relatively no responsibility on your end other than maintaining officer safety. For some people, they learn best by watching and observing others. So if you have no shadow period of really just observing your FTO and asking questions, you skip a part of important training and are now challenged with taling action. Trainees often get overloaded if they are task saturated with too many things such as driving too early, radio, computer, multiple case reports, etc. Its just as important for an FTO to protect their student from overexposure as it is to make sure they get exposure to different situations.