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Staff will understand the importance of writing clear, coherent, professional

incident reports to the colleges student conduct process


Staff will be able to articulate to students involved in a situation that is being
documented the purpose of the incident report and what happens after a
situation is documented
Staff will be able to distinguish what information is important to report in an
incident as well as what information should not be included in an incident
report
Staff will be able to write clear, coherent, professional incident reports

When a student staff member comes across a loud room on rove or receives a call
while on duty, it may begin an important process often referred to as the
student conduct process. Though they may not realize it in the heat of an
incident, documenting a situation and writing the subsequent incident report
are important roles that a student staff member plays in the conduct process.

Incident reports are permanent records that inform us about issues:


o In the halls
o With particular students
o With student groups
o In the community in general
Incident reports are used to
Keep people informed
Compile statistical information
Identify programmatic and other departmental or college needs
Facilitate investigations
Serve as subpoenaed evidence in a criminal or civil trial

Matter to a wide variety of people:


Students
o Help determine a students charge
o Read at student conduct hearings
o Are a factual record of what happened in an incident
Student Staff
o Important element of your responsibilities as a student staff member
o Showcase your abilities as a student staff member
o Are a professional document
Pro Staff Members
o Key means of communication between student staff and professional staff
o Incident reports keep professional staff informed of occurrences and trends in their building
o Used in the student conduct process where professional staff members may act as hearing officers
TCNJ
o Part of educational records for which the college is responsible for maintaining
o Information from incident reports can be relayed to the public via statistics
The State of New Jersey
o Incident reports may be subpoenaed for court cases

Writing a clear, coherent, professional incident reports begins as soon as you get a call on duty
or come across an incident. It is important to take as many notes as possible during an incident
for easy translation into a formal incident report. Notes taken during an incident should work
towards answering the 5Ws, recording any policy or conduct violations, and making it easier to
write what happened during the incident in the incident report.

The most important times to take note of are the start and end times and
the times of any pivotal events.

Note where the incident took place (ex. bathroom, lounge, hallway, room
227). Be sure to note if the action is taking place in multiple locations or if
the action moves places (Room to bathroom, hallway to room).

Note down the following:


Residents
Collect IDs and guest passes. Write down names and both the COLOR and NUMBER of
the guest pass. At the end of the incident, cross check guest passes with the guest log.
Distinguish between witnesses (residents who informed you of the incident) and
residents involved

Responding CAs
Professional staff
If they respond or even if they are just consulted

Responding police or EMS


Write down names and badge numbers at the end of the incident or when they are
not addressing resident concerns

While determining who is often as easy as collecting IDs, several problems can
arise when straightening out the who portion of an incident. Here are some
frequent problems and some tips to address them.
Whose room is this?
Its important to identify whose room the incident is taking place in and use them as a
point person for communication with the residents
In some situations, the residents of the room may not be present when you come
across an incident. Have a resident in the room call them and ask them to come back
to their room. If they are reluctant, make sure they know that they may be responsible
for what happens in their room, even if they are not present.

Who are you?

Not every resident involved in an incident will always have their TCNJ ID on them. If the resident
lives in the building and the situation is under control, have one CA escort each resident who is
without an ID to their rooms to obtain it.

Who are you here with?

Not every guest who enters the building before 8pm will promptly return down to the night desk in
order to be signed into your building properly. As a result, you might encounter an individual who
does not go to TCNJ but is also not signed into the building.
Ask them for a drivers license or other form of identification to verify their name. Also record their
phone number, address, and which resident is their host.
After the incident, make sure the host and their guest go to the night guest to be properly signed
into the building.

Use your senses to describe whats happening.


What do you see?
What do you smell?
What do you hear?
What were people doing?
Be as specific as possible when noting details. (Number of bottles and sizes,
quotes)

Why you addressed the incident or what brought it to your attention. Ask
questions to try and gather the full story including what happened before
you were there.

While each incident is different and the amount of notes you are able to
take will change based on the type of incident and how many staff members
are present, taking notes during an incident is extremely important and will
make writing an incident report that much easier.

Writing the narrative of an incident report is simply translating the notes taken during an
incident and using them to write a formal description of the incident.
When writing this description, you must follow a few simple guidelines:
The narrative of the incident report must be written in the first person

On the first reference, write, I, Community Advisor (CA) Jane Doe


For subsequent references, simply write I when reporting your observations or actions

The first time a persons name appears in the narrative of an incident report, use the
persons first and last name preceded by their title (ex. Resident John Smith)
The second time a persons name appears in the narrative, use only the last name preceded
by their title (ex. Resident Smith)

The first time a title is referenced in the narrative of an incident report, spell out the title
completely followed by an acronym for the title in parenthesis and the persons full name.

The second time a title is referenced in the narrative, use only the acronym and the last
name

I, Community Advisor (CA) Jane Doe, and CA Michael Clarkson


Resident Director (RD) Stephen Brown

CA Clarkson
RD Brown

Make sure to include the names of everyone involved in the situation in the narrative of the
incident report, even if they did nothing more than hand you their ID and sit back down.

I collected the IDs of Residents John Smith, Greg Sall, Erin Whitt, and Jess Diss
I observed Residents John Smith, Greg Sall, and Jess Diss sitting on the bed when I entered the
room

Do not speculate about what a resident was thinking or about to do.


Speculation Resident Smith was about to throw an orange out of the
Travers 5 elevator lobby window

Only include facts or quotes in the narrative of the incident report


Resident Smith was holding an orange in a throwing position while standing
near the Travers 5 elevator lobby windows. Four of the elevator lobby
windows were open.

Begin incident report with At approximately (time) on (date). Then


explain why you addressed the situation (call, noise on rove).

When confronting a situation, make sure to introduce yourself


as Community Advisor. Be sure that everyone hears you, even if
it means repeating your introduction.

Be aware of who said


and did what from the
moment you entered
the room to the time
you leave the incident.
This way, when you
write the incident
report, you can refer to
each resident by name
even before you
collected IDs and each
residents involvement
in the incident can be
more completely
determined.

An incident report needs to be a complete story and capture as much


information as possible Therefore, it is important to ask questions (in this
case, Were you drinking? and Who was drinking?) for greater clarity
during the student conduct process.

Separate the narrative


into different
paragraphs based on
major events that took
place during the
incident. Also separate
events that happen at
the same time, but in
different places or
under the supervision
of different CAs.

Because alcohol bottles vary in sizes and amounts, it is important to record sizes and
descriptions for the bottles. While student staff members are not allowed to touch the bottles,
an easy way to find out amount or size is to ask a resident to show you the labels when they
are dumping the alcohol or when they are disposing the bottles.

End the narrative of the incident report by indicating the time student staff members
left the incident and approximately how long the incident ended from beginning to
end.

Be sure to inform residents involved that you will be documenting the situation
and that a pro staff member from ResEd may be reaching out to them.
If students begin asking questions about the student conduct process, explain
that your role is only to document the situation and that is best for them to write
down questions that they may have and ask these questions to a professional
staff member.

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