How to Review a Police Report for Inconsistencies
By Christine Burke · Published 2026-06-01
The short answer
Read the report twice: first for the overall narrative, then line by line against a timeline you build yourself. Compare every factual claim to other documents in the case, note where accounts differ, and mark each discrepancy with the page it came from so it can be verified and discussed with an attorney.
1. Establish the narrative first
Read the whole report once without stopping. Note the who, what, when, where, and the stated reason for each action an officer took.
2. Build a timeline
List every time-stamped or sequenced event. Reports often compress or reorder events; a clean timeline reveals gaps and impossibilities.
3. Compare against other documents
Line the report up against witness statements, dispatch logs, body-camera transcripts, and supplements. Conflicting descriptions of the same event are the most important thing to flag.
4. Mark the page for every issue
A discrepancy is only useful if you can point to it. Record the document name and page number for each item so counsel can check the source.
5. Treat flags as questions, not conclusions
Documents can differ for legitimate reasons. A flag is a prompt to ask a question — not proof of anything.
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