The Flashlight Assault: A Report Written Three Hours Late
You are the only guard at a 24-hour industrial plant. At 03:12, from the north gate, you hear shouting in the employee lot and see two men, one holding a metal flashlight. The taller man swings it at the other's head; the second man drops to the pavement bleeding from a two-inch laceration above his left eyebrow, dazed but talking. You call 911 at 03:13 and request EMS. You apply pressure with the first aid kit. The attacker drops the flashlight and walks toward the fence; you keep him in sight without approaching. Police arrive at 03:31 and take custody. EMS transports the injured man at 03:44. You sit down to write the report at 06:50, and your draft reads: "At 3:15 I heard a fight in the lot. The assailant, who was clearly on meth, hit the victim with a weapon. I secured the scene and waited for PD. The victim was fine." You later notice the DVR clock runs four minutes ahead of your watch.
1. Identify at least six defects in the draft and rewrite the opening three sentences.
Read the worked answer
Defects:
- Wrong time. You wrote 3:15; your call was logged at 03:13, so the incident began at 03:12. Your own report contradicts the 911 record.
- "Heard a fight." You saw the strike. Report what you observed, not what you inferred from noise.
- "Clearly on meth." A diagnosis you cannot make. Describe behavior: rapid speech, pacing, dilated pupils, whatever you actually saw.
- "A weapon." Name the object. A metal flashlight is specific, recoverable, and chargeable; "weapon" is a conclusion.
- "The victim was fine." He had a two-inch scalp laceration and was dazed. "Fine" is both false and a liability admission about your medical response.
- Missing elements. No identification of either party, no location specificity, no description of the attacker's departure, no EMS times, no statement of who did what first.
- Three hours late. Writing at 06:50 from memory invites tampering accusations and weakens recall. Notes should be taken at 03:45, not after a shift of other duties.
Rewrite: "At 03:12, while posted at the north gate, I observed two males in the employee lot approximately 40 feet away. The taller male, later identified as ___, swung a metal flashlight at the head of the second male, later identified as ___. The second male fell to the pavement. I called 911 at 03:13."
2. What do you do with the flashlight, and how do you document it?
Read the worked answer
The flashlight is evidence of the assault, and your handling of it will be examined more closely than your prose.
You already made one decision: you did not pick it up. That is correct - the object's location is part of the scene. Once police arrive, point it out verbally and on the ground, state that you did not touch it, and note who approached it. If you must move it before police arrive (for example, the attacker reaches for it, or a vehicle is about to run it over), move it only for that reason, and say so explicitly.
Documentation should include: description, approximate location by reference to a fixed object, time you first saw it in the attacker's hand, time it was dropped, time police took custody, and the name and badge number of the officer who collected it. If you take custody yourself, start a chain-of-custody entry with date, time, your name, the item's description, and each subsequent transfer with a signature.
What not to do: put it in your locker, wrap it in your own glove, or mention it only in conversation. An evidence gap is the first thing a defense attorney looks for, and it usually comes from a guard who was trying to be helpful.
3. The client's plant manager reads your report and asks you to add: "The guard was at his assigned post at all times and maintained constant patrol coverage." How do you respond?
Read the worked answer
Decline, and offer the accurate version.
The statement is false in a way that is easy to prove: your post orders likely require patrol rounds with checkpoint logs, and the DVR shows you moving from the north gate to the lot. More importantly, the sentence is irrelevant to the incident and exists only to protect the contract. Once one sentence in a report is demonstrably false, every sentence becomes arguable, including your identification of the attacker and your description of the strike.
Say it in plain terms: "I can document where I was and what I did, but I can't write that I was at my post the whole time, because I left it to render aid. I'll add a factual sentence about my movements." Then do it - for example, "At 03:13 I left the north gate post to render first aid; the gate was unattended until 03:36, when Officer ___ arrived." Notifying your supervisor of the unstaffed gate during the emergency is itself part of the record.
The time-sync issue compounds this. Because the DVR is four minutes ahead of your watch, note the offset once in the report ("all times in this report are from my watch; the DVR clock runs approximately four minutes fast") so that the reviewer reconciling video and narrative sees a careful observer rather than a contradiction. Then report the DVR offset to the client in writing for correction.