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ALMOST everyone is familiar with police reports or at least has heard of them. Many readers would have gone to a police station and lodged a police report. There are other occasions when something happens and a person is asked whether he has made a police report or asks himself whether he should do so.  

Police reports are made when a person has been involved in an accident, lost one’s identity card or passport, if there has been a burglary, or cases of a criminal nature where a person is either a victim or a witness to a crime. 

Sometimes, there are cases where the authorities say nothing can be done because no police report has been lodged. Such statements give the impression that even though something wrong has taken place, nothing can be done because no police report has been lodged. 

There are occasions where a person is reluctant to lodge a report because he may end up being called as a witness or, if the report is untrue, action can be taken against him. 

A reader asks about the purpose of police reports and whether it is true that no action can be taken if no police report is lodged. The reader wants to know whether the technicalities of making a police report override all other considerations in terms of action being taken. 

The purpose of a police report differs somewhat depending on whether what is involved is a crime or a civil dispute between two or more parties. 

Where what is involved is an offence or crime, then a police report plays an important role because it becomes the basis on which the investigations begin. Thus, a police report made at the earliest opportunity is called a first information report. 

This becomes the basis of the commencement of police investigations and if an offence is disclosed then the police will institute further action to prosecute the offender, or in some cases even to locate and identify the offender, 

This does not mean that a person who is involved in an incident or is the victim of the crime must himself or herself lodge such a report. Nor is it required that the person who lodges a report must have witnessed the incident.  

Thus, where a person passes an accident scene, he/she may just call a police station and tell the cops that a terrible accident has occurred at a particular place.  

The police officer on duty who receives the call records it down and this then becomes the first information report which results in the police proceeding to the scene of the accident. 

However, not every such report made must be followed up by the police. Much depends on the nature of the information or complaint received. A person making a report may only indicate consequences of an incident or the incident itself. 

There may be instances where the information conveyed may be so brief that it may be neither possible nor practical for the police to follow up.  

On the other hand, it may involve a dispute of a commercial or domestic nature which may have some possible elements of a crime or an offence. In such a case, there may be no follow up because the police may feel that the civil remedies available to the parties may be adequate to address the issue. 

People do lodge reports where there is no element of an offence whatsoever but what is involved is a purely commercial dispute based on principles of contract. In such cases why lodge a report at all? 

The only purpose served by lodging a report in such a situation is to create a record of events that have taken place. Thus, the parties hope that the report will help to corroborate the allegations made. 

But if a wrong has occurred, but no one has reported the matter to the police, any police officer or any other person who knows about it through a newspaper, a letter or through information received from other sources can himself/herself lodge a report so that investigations can be set in motion. 

It is similarly the case with other bodies that deal with complaints, like trade and professional organisations that actually take cognisance of a wrong that has occurred and initiate investigations.  

On a different note, a person who lodges a police report is generally protected so long as the report is made honestly, even though investigations do not bear out what is alleged in the report. No action can be taken against such a person by another person who is initially detained and subsequently set free. 

If every person is required to provide proof of the allegations made by him before lodging a report, then the complainant would be required to be the detective and investigator before he can lodge a report. 

That is not the concept relating to making police reports under our law. Nor is a person who makes a police report liable if facts later discovered show that there was no adequate basis for his complaint.  

The only exception would be where the person makes such a report knowing at the outset that it is false. 

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