HOW TO WRITE A GOOD INCIDENT REPORT AS A SECURITY OFFICER

Writing up incident reports is an important part of being a security officer. As an officer we are expected to communicate effectively both verbally or written, which is why you should be able to give accurate descriptions of an incidents when writing a report. This means proper usage of spellings and grammar is required, and no slangs.
These reports could be read by anyone, especially your bosses or owner/owners of the company, legal attorney, police, or fire department personnel. So here are a few things to keep in mind when writing incidents reports:

1.FACTS:

One thing you should always keep in mind when you write your report is not to include your personal opinion. Also be careful of words you use and not jump into conclusions. For example, saying someone detained is drunk or intoxicated is clearly jumping into a conclusion. Instead, you could word your sentence based on what you see or hear like “you smelled alcohol on the clients breath”.

2.SIMPLE LANGUAGE:

Your incident report should be understood by anyone reading it, no matter what their experience is. Also remember that this is not a college exam, so use simple language that anyone should be able to understand. Try your best not to include jargon and if this is unavoidable, put the meaning in brackets.

3.FORMATTING:

Don’t make your report into a long boring paragraph that will confuse or mislead whoever is reading it. It is always good to have them in paragraphs so that the reader will know when facts are being presented on something new. You can even use bullet points or numbers on the information if it’s required. This way it’s easier to read and also draws the readers eye to the crucial points.

4.FIVE Ws AND AN H

When, where, who, why, what and how should be part of your report. Missing any of these will reduce the authenticity of your incident report. Always advisable to include everyone that was present. Including firemen, police, ambulance or other emergency personnel. Make sure you are clear of who is at what place, when it happened and how. You should also include the events that led to the incident and how the situation escalated.