MO POST common mistakes
MO POST · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Applies the wrong legal standard to each phase of a contact - demanding probable cause to stop, then frisking or arresting on a hunch - and writes "I had reasonable suspicion" in the report without listing the facts that created it.
Candidates memorise the labels (reasonable suspicion, probable cause, exigency) as vocabulary words and never build the habit of matching a standard to a specific action. Under test pressure the labels get shuffled.
What to do instead
For every scenario, say out loud which action you are taking and which standard authorises it: stop, frisk, arrest, search, entry. Then write three observable facts supporting it - time and place, the specific behaviour, and the inference drawn from your training and experience. Practise until the facts come before the conclusion.
Treats every violation as an all-or-nothing decision: either cites/arrests on a first-time minor offence or walks away with no documentation, and cannot explain the choice in the report.
Candidates believe discretion means choosing between being soft and being strict, and they have never seen discretion written down. They also fear that documenting a warning looks like not doing the job.
What to do instead
Learn your agency's discretion factors - offence severity, victim wishes, injury, prior contacts, attitude and cooperation - and name the ones you used in the narrative. Document a warning as a contact: the violation observed, the education given, and the decision made. That converts a judgement call into a defensible record.
Collects physical and digital evidence and leaves sealing, packaging and property-receipt entries until end of shift, so items arrive with unrecorded transfers or packaged together in one bag.
Documentation feels like clerical work that can wait, and the shift ends with a call holding the officer. Mixing items happens because the officer plans to sort them later and never does.
What to do instead
Package at the point of collection: one item per container, seal it, initial and date across the seal, and write the property receipt before you leave the scene. Log every transfer, including the handoff to the property room or lab. For phones and drives, record the seizure time and who handled the device.
Clears a crash scene before photographing final rest positions and measuring, and records skid or impact data with no fixed reference point or baseline. On a DWI, gives the implied-consent advisement from memory and paraphrases it.
Roadway-reopening pressure and the belief that photos can be taken at the tow lot. Measurements get taken from wherever the officer is standing rather than from a fixed object.
What to do instead
Photograph before anything moves, then measure from two fixed reference points on perpendicular axes and note surface, grade, weather, and light. Use a total-station or at least a baseline plus offsets. Read the implied-consent advisory (RSMo 577.020) verbatim from the card and record the exact time, the refusal or submission, and the witness.
Writes the force report around the outcome ("subject was combative, force was used to gain compliance") instead of the subject's pre-force conduct, the officer's specific perceived threat, and the de-escalation attempted first.
The Graham v. Connor factors get memorised as a list but never practised as narrative. Officers write for their sergeant, who already knows the context, not for a prosecutor or jury who does not.
What to do instead
Use a fixed structure: threat perception (what the subject did and said, in sequence), options considered and de-escalation attempted, each force application separately with its effect, medical care afterward, and witnesses. Tie it to the statutory standard for an officer's use of force in making an arrest (RSMo 563.046).
Muzzle discipline collapses during reloads, stoppage clearance and reholstering, and the officer finishes a string of fire without scanning and assessing before holstering.
Qualification is scored on hits, so administrative gun handling is never rehearsed under time. Stoppage drills get practised only at the static line, never with movement.
What to do instead
Dry-practise draw, reload, clear and holster with continuous muzzle awareness, then add movement and a timer. End every course of fire with the same ritual: scan, assess, decock or safe, holster. Practise deliberate stoppage drills - tap-rack, fail-to-fire, double feed - until they are automatic.
Enters intersections on an emergency run without clearing, drives at a speed where stopping distance exceeds the sight line, and later reports the response as "responded code" with no route, speed or conditions.
Urgency bias and the mistaken belief that lights and siren create a right of way rather than a request to yield. Speed creeps up because the driver tracks the destination, not the sight line.
What to do instead
Clear each intersection out loud and slow enough to stop, and set speed to what you can see, not to what dispatch says. After the run, document route, speeds, traffic and road conditions, weather, emergency equipment used, and any deviation from policy.
Writes conclusory, passive narratives - "contact was made," "the subject was uncooperative," "a search was conducted" - with no times, no quotes, and elements of the offence missing.
Officers write as a briefing for colleagues who share context, and passive voice hides the officer's own role. Under time pressure the elements of the offence are never checked off.
What to do instead
Write first person, active voice, chronological, one fact per sentence. Include times, verbatim quotes and specific observations ("smelled of intoxicants, slurred speech, swayed when standing"). Before submitting, run an elements checklist for the charge and confirm every element has a supporting sentence.
Adds small embellishments or omits facts to make a case cleaner, and stays silent about a colleague's excessive force or policy violation.
Loyalty norms, the belief that a minor omission serves justice, and no clear model of what the duty to intervene and report actually requires in practice.
What to do instead
Write only what you can defend under oath, including facts that hurt the case. Learn the duty to intervene and report as an affirmative obligation with a time frame, and practise the script for interrupting a colleague. Understand that sustained dishonesty findings end careers and create disclosure obligations for the prosecutor.
Delays medical care until the scene is fully secured, applies a tourniquet or chest seal without recording the application time, and hands off to EMS with no verbal report. Neglects sleep, fitness and cumulative stress until performance degrades.
Scene safety is over-taught as a reason to wait, and care given is treated as EMS's record rather than the officer's. Wellness is treated as a personal matter with no operational consequence.
What to do instead
Follow tactical casualty care: care under fire, then move to a safer point and treat - control bleeding and airway before paperwork. Write the tourniquet or seal time on the patient and in the report, and give a verbal handoff (mechanism, injuries, treatment, times). Treat sleep, annual physical and EAP contact as scheduled duties, not optional ones.