NTN Police Spelling and Punctuation for Police Reports — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following is the correctly spelled word for a legal order requiring a person to appear in court?
- Subpoena (Correct answer)
- Subpena
- Subpeona
- Supboena
Correct answer: Subpoena
'Subpoena' is the correct spelling. This Latin-derived legal term is routinely used in police reports and court documents. All other options contain misspellings that would be flagged as errors in official reports.
Question 2: Which of the following words is spelled correctly as it would appear in a police surveillance report?
- Surviellance
- Surveilance
- Surveillance (Correct answer)
- Surveillence
Correct answer: Surveillance
'Surveillance' is correct. It derives from the French 'surveiller' (to watch over). It contains 'veill' in the middle and ends in '-ance,' not '-ence.' This word appears frequently in investigative and undercover documentation.
Question 3: Which sentence is correctly punctuated?
- Officer Martinez, who arrived on scene first wrote the initial report.
- Officer Martinez who arrived on scene first, wrote the initial report.
- Officer Martinez, who arrived on scene first, wrote the initial report. (Correct answer)
- Officer Martinez who arrived on scene first wrote, the initial report.
Correct answer: Officer Martinez, who arrived on scene first, wrote the initial report.
Non-restrictive relative clauses — clauses that add extra information but are not essential to identify the subject — must be enclosed in commas on both sides. 'Who arrived on scene first' is non-restrictive (Officer Martinez is already named), so it requires a comma before and after.
Question 4: Which sentence uses an apostrophe correctly in a police report context?
- The witnesses' statements were recorded at the scene. (Correct answer)
- The witnesses statements were recorded at the scene.
- The witnesses's statements were recorded at the scene.
- The witness'es statements were recorded at the scene.
Correct answer: The witnesses' statements were recorded at the scene.
When a plural noun already ending in 's' is made possessive, only an apostrophe is added after the final 's' — no additional 's.' 'Witnesses'' is correct because 'witnesses' is plural. 'Witnesses's' and 'witness'es' are not standard English forms.
Question 5: Which of the following is spelled correctly in the context of a criminal case?
- Perpetraitor
- Perpetrator (Correct answer)
- Perpotrator
- Perpetrater
Correct answer: Perpetrator
'Perpetrator' is the correct spelling, referring to the person who committed a criminal act. The suffix is '-ator,' derived from Latin, matching the same ending found in 'investigator' and 'administrator.' All other options contain misspellings.
Question 6: Which of the following sentences contains a punctuation error?
- The suspect fled north on Main Street, turned east on Oak Avenue, and entered the alley.
- The officers recovered a firearm, two knives and a quantity of narcotics from the vehicle.
- Before the interview, the detective read the Miranda warning aloud.
- The victim identified the suspect from a photo lineup, and signed a written statement. (Correct answer)
Correct answer: The victim identified the suspect from a photo lineup, and signed a written statement.
Option D contains an error: a comma before 'and' is incorrect when connecting only two verb phrases in a single independent clause ('identified' and 'signed'). The Oxford comma rule applies to lists of three or more items, not to two-part compound predicates with the same subject.
NTN Police Spelling and Punctuation for Police Reports
Which of the following is the correctly spelled word for a legal order requiring a person to appear in court?