Try it yourself, free
Find out what police work is really like
Not the chases. The account you write afterwards, which is the part that decides whether a case holds together. Twenty minutes here will tell you whether that side of the job suits you.
Why this is the part that matters
A witness statement is the written account of what somebody saw, heard or did. It is taken at the scene or shortly after, and it becomes evidence. Months later a court reads it, a defence solicitor picks at it, and the officer who wrote it is asked to stand behind every line.
Cases are lost on it. Not usually because somebody lied, but because a description was too vague to identify anyone, because what a witness actually said was paraphrased into something blander, or because nobody wrote down how far away she was standing when she saw him.
It is a craft, and it is taught. Almost nobody outside the job has tried it.
What you actually do
Nothing to install, and nothing is multiple choice. You are given an incident and you deal with it.
You are sent to something
An incident log tasks you, the way control room would. A shop theft, an assault outside a pub, a burglary with a shaken victim. You read the log and any evidence already gathered.
INCIDENT LOG 4471
16:33 Report of shop theft, QuickMart, High Street. Male left with spirits. Attend and obtain the account.
You question the people there
You type your questions in plain English and they answer in character. They misremember, they hold things back, they volunteer opinions as though they were facts. Some details only ever surface because you thought to ask.
Had you seen him before today?
Twice last week. Both times he stood by the spirits and left without buying.
You write the statement
On a ruled statement sheet modelled on the one officers use, with the evidence and a checklist beside you. Numbered paragraphs, surnames in capitals, times in twenty-four hour clock. The conventions are part of the craft and you pick them up by doing it.
1. I am Police Constable 1234 Jane SMITH of Avon Vale Constabulary.
It is marked against the rules
Not a mark out of a hundred. Every finding names the rule it relates to and quotes your own words back, so you know what to change. Then you write it again.
What the marking looks for
The England and Wales baseline, in plain English. Every finding you get points at one of these.
Structure
First person throughout, and one topic or event per paragraph.
Chronology
Events in the order they happened, with dates and times where you know them.
Fact and opinion
What you saw, not what you concluded. "Unsteady on his feet", not "drunk", unless you give the basis.
Direct speech
Significant words in quotation marks, as they were actually said, not tidied up.
Description
Build, height, clothing, registration, anything distinctive. Enough that somebody could be picked out.
Identification
Where identification matters, all eight ADVOKATE factors. Explained below.
Exhibits
Anything you seize is produced with a reference and you say where it came from.
Language
Plain English. No jargon, no abbreviations, no force codes left unexplained.
Prohibited content
Nothing asserted as fact that you cannot personally support.
Vulnerability
Safeguarding concerns and support needs noted, and acted on.
ADVOKATE, in plain English
When identification is in question, a court expects the account to answer eight things. Officers learn them as a mnemonic.
- A Amount of time
- How long did they watch the person for? Two minutes is not a glance.
- D Distance
- How far away were they standing? Give it in metres, not "close by".
- V Visibility
- Daylight or dark, street lighting, weather, anything affecting what they could see.
- O Obstruction
- Was anything in the way? Shelving, a crowd, a vehicle, rain on glass.
- K Known or seen before
- Had they seen this person before, and how often? A regular is not a stranger.
- A Any reason to remember
- Something that fixed the person in their memory. A tattoo, an argument, a question asked.
- T Time lapse
- How long between seeing the person and giving the description? Memory moves.
- E Error or discrepancy
- Any difference between their first description and the person later identified.
Who does this
Thinking about applying
Find out what the written side of the job is really like before you commit years to it. Better to discover it here than in your second week.
Simply curious
You watch the documentaries. This is the part they cut.
Already on a course
Professional Policing degrees, uniformed public services courses and cadet units, all practising against the same published England and Wales baseline.
What you get, free
Each pack is a set of complete scenarios with marked attempts, so you can write one, read the feedback, and write it again knowing what you missed. Buy once; no subscription.
Questions people ask first
Do I need any experience?
How long does one take?
Is this an official police recruitment process?
Who marks it?
Are the scenarios real cases?
What does it cost?
What happens to what I write?
StateMentor is independent training software from Fully Coded Solutions Limited. It is not a police recruitment process and is not run by any force. Every scenario, person and address in it is fictional. See the privacy notice and acceptable use policy.