The Report That Doesn't Match the Video
You are a contract guard at a warehouse. During a shift you and a coworker respond to a fight between two workers near the loading dock. You separate them. One worker has a cut lip. In your incident report you write that the aggressor "lunged without warning and I used minimal force to subdue him." Two days later your supervisor says the dock camera shows the aggressor was pushed first by the other worker, and that you held the aggressor's arm behind his back for about 40 seconds while he was against a wall. The client is now asking for the report and may forward it to its insurer. Your company's policy requires reports to be accurate and to note any force used and its duration.
1. What went wrong with the report, and what should you do now?
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The report contains two problems: a conclusion ("without warning") you may not have seen, and an understatement of the force ("minimal") that omits the arm-behind-back hold and its duration. Reports should state observable facts and actions, not characterizations that decide blame. Now: do not alter the original. Write a supplemental report that corrects the record, states what you actually observed and did, gives the hold and its length, and explains that the original was written before you saw the video. Notify your supervisor promptly and cooperate with the client's review. A correction made promptly and honestly is far better than a report that appears to have been edited after the video surfaced. Expect questions about why the initial account differed.
2. The client's insurer asks whether you were trained on restraint holds. How do you answer, and what does this expose?
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Answer truthfully: state what training you received, when, and whether the arm-behind-back hold was covered. Do not guess or overstate. If you were not trained on that hold, say so; the insurer and client need the fact, and hiding it worsens the liability exposure. This also exposes a gap: if guards are using restraints not covered by training, the employer faces a training and supervision issue, and you should raise it in writing. Your own exposure is reduced by candor and by a supplemental report that matches the video. The lesson for future incidents is to write the report the same shift, describe force in plain physical terms with duration, and avoid words like "minimal" or "without warning" unless you can support them.