The Report That Doesn't Add Up
During your 14:00–22:00 shift you respond to a minor scuffle between two teenagers outside a cinema. By the time you arrive it is over; one boy has a small cut lip. You separate them, take brief statements, and at 21:50 sit down to write your incident report. You realise you did not note the exact time you were called, only that it was 'around 8'. You also did not get the name of the witness who pointed you toward the boys, and you are not fully sure which of the two threw the first punch. Your supervisor wants the report before you go off shift.
1. How do you write the report honestly without guessing?
Read the worked answer
Write only what you can support, and state uncertainty explicitly rather than filling gaps with plausible detail.
- Time: write 'approximately 20:00 (time not recorded at the moment of call; estimated from shift log)'. Do not invent 20:05.
- Sequence: describe what you observed on arrival, the injury you saw, and the statements as given. For the first punch, write 'I did not see the start of the altercation and cannot say who struck first; both parties gave conflicting accounts.'
- Witness: describe the person ('a woman in a red jacket who pointed me toward the boys') and note that her name was not obtained.
- Facts vs. inference: separate them clearly - 'the boy's lip was bleeding' (fact) versus 'he appeared to have been hit' (inference).
An honest gap is defensible. A confident guess that later proves wrong destroys the report's value and your credibility.
2. Your supervisor says, 'Just put 20:00 and say the taller boy started it - it's only a scuffle.' What do you do?
Read the worked answer
Politely decline to falsify: 'I can give the approximate time and say I didn't see who started it - I can't say he started it because I didn't see it.' Offer the honest version and explain that a wrong attribution could unfairly label a child and collapse if challenged.
Then:
- Submit the report with the uncertainty stated.
- Note in the report that the time was estimated and the witness unidentified, and recommend the cinema's camera footage be reviewed to establish the sequence.
- If pressed to change facts, raise it with your own line manager or SIRA-facing compliance contact.
A guard's report may end up in a police file. Accuracy and integrity are not optional, and 'my supervisor told me to' is not a defence for a false statement.