THE IMPACT OF POLICE RESPONSE AND THE POOR COMPLETION OF POLICE REPORTS: AN OBSTACLE TO JUSTICE

Abstract

High-quality police response and the technically accurate drafting of Police Reports (Boletins de Ocorrência – B.O.) are fundamental pillars for ensuring access to justice and preserving the evidentiary integrity of criminal prosecution. Deficiencies in primary reception and negligent or inaccurate record-keeping pose severe obstacles to the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. The operational reality of the frontline officer, marked by institutional pressure to quickly clear radio dispatches to resume preventative patrol, coupled with system latency and poor interface ergonomics on mobile devices, acts as a primary driver of superficial records. Furthermore, while the definitive legal classification belongs strictly to the judicial police and the prosecution, the preliminary classification and factual description drafted by the military police fundamentally condition initial referrals, procedural routing, and crime analytics. This initial defect triggers a cascade effect: it leaves Civil Police detectives without actionable evidentiary leads, undermines the Public Prosecutor's ability to build robust indictments (opinio delicti), and forces the Judiciary to deny pretrial detentions or release suspects due to poorly described legal materiality. Overcoming these systemic bottlenecks requires continuous in-person training, ergonomic software re-engineering, and the institutionalization of documentary auditing routines divorced from punitive disciplinary threats, highlighting the regulatory framework implemented by the Military Police of the State of Paraná (PMPR), particularly Instruction Note nº 004/2024 - PM/3.