To Report or Not to Report
Police officers are going to find themselves in situations they do not want to be involved in. When you just think about the amount of driving that a police officer does, and what that means to your chance of becoming involved in a collision (minor or otherwise). The more you drive, the greater the chance of damaging a vehicle. Because police vehicles are driven almost 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, they experience a lot of wear and tear. The vehicles are often in pretty poor condition after a while.
Scenario
James and Mike had been working together as partners for almost a year. They were both hard workers, who had only about four years on the job each. They both enjoyed working with each and had become friends over the last year. They were assigned to patrol area 1406 quite often and as a result found themselves driving the vehicle 1406 which was quite an old vehicle, with many dents and scrapes on it.
Over the last couple of months, they noticed more and more dents on the vehicle when they performed their inspection before shift began. James had checked the record log for the vehicle and no one had entered any information about new damage in the over four months.
One night while James was driving, they were responding to an officer needs assistance call. James pulled into a laneway and while turning the corner scrapped the passenger side of the cruiser. They continued on to the call and were the first to respond to two officers who were having difficulty arresting several youths. When the situation was resolved Mike looked at the vehicle. There was a fresh scratch along the side of the cruiser, but it wasn’t very noticeable. James took a look as well, and told Mike he would handle it as he was driving.
A week later during the inspection, Mike noticed that there was still no new report of damage to vehicle 1406. James had said he would take care of it, and Mike was wondering if he should make note of the damage, talk to a supervisor, or tell James to make the report. What would be the best way to handle this situation?
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Be honest and report everything. It will only hurt an officers credibility to lie and get caught in the lie. Explain that there were specific marks on the vehicle before but that you didn’t think that they were worth reporting, and that while you were driving the vehicle sustained another mark and there was a misunderstanding about whether you or your partner would report it. Discuss this with your partner first.
Absolutely! There being SO many cruisers used daily, damage of all sorts is going to happen; damage that must be accounted for. The term “CYA” (cover your ass) comes into play; you mark, dent, or scratch it; make note of it.
Reminding James again should fuel him into doing the right thing; that being, filling out a circle check report properly.