The purpose of this Custody Operations Directive is to ensure custody personnel author independent reports when documenting use of force incidents and refrain from collaborating with other involved personnel.
Department members who use or witness reportable force shall complete a separate and independent written report before going off-duty. To the extent practical, Department members shall be separated until they have completed their use of force reports and/or witness reports on use of force incidents.
Department members shall document all force reports based on their independent account, without referencing other involved personnel's reports and without assisting others in writing their accounts of the incident.
Watch commanders, supervising lieutenants, and unit commanders shall review the Department members’ force reports to ensure they reflect each member’s individual perceptions and recollections of the events and that they do not have common wording or phrasing that would suggest inappropriate collaboration on force reports.
Evidence of collaboration may include, but is not limited to, exact wording and substantially similar phrases or sentences apart from common verbiage (e.g., “The purpose of this report is…,” “I reported the force I used…,” etc.) common within police reports.
Refer to Custody Division Manual sections 7-06/000.00, “Use of Force Reporting Procedures” and 7-07/000.00, “Use of Force Review Procedures” for further information.
Any questions regarding this directive should be directed to the Custody Training and Standards Bureau at [REDACTED TEXT].