Which of the following is NOT a listed use for police reports?

• A. Provide a permanent record of facts of an incident
• B. Used to coordinate follow-up
• C. Provide basis for officer evaluation
• D. Publish annual crime rate rankings

Answer: (D)

Police reports are intended to document what happened and preserve those facts for future reference. They create a permanent record of the incident, including details like time, place, people involved, actions taken, and evidence collected, so anyone reviewing the case has a clear, factual account to rely on.

They are also used to coordinate follow-up by different units and to support administrative needs, such as planning investigations and allocating resources. Supervisors use the content and quality of these reports to assess performance and training needs.

Publishing annual crime rate rankings, however, is not a listed use because rankings come from analyzing aggregated, standardized statistics across many incidents and jurisdictions. A single incident report isn’t designed to produce or publish such rankings; those require separate data compilation and methodological work to compare crime levels consistently over time and across areas.