ABSTRACT
Learning includes keeping up with innovations. This chapter discusses innovations related to report writing. It also discusses innovations related to police report writing and innovations concerning jails and probation. The chapter describes the issues related to reliance on computers and computer programs for police report writing and report writing in other areas of criminal justice, such as jail operations and probation presentence report writing. Police departments and correctional agencies can choose to purchase "canned" programs for report writing or develop their own programs. Software is available or could be produced to keep track of relevant data in jails and prisons and to complete various report writing tasks. Such records management and reports could be valuable in assessing current operations and searching for areas that need improvement. Several other computer uses, such as blood spatter analysis and vehicle collision reconstruction, are also having an important, if more limited, effect on the ability of crime labs to aid in investigations.
