3.1 Writing Clear, Concise & Objective CAD Incident Narratives
Key Takeaways
DCAS Exam No. 7307 defines Written Expression as using English words or sentences in writing so that others will understand, such as when a Police Communications Technician records pertinent information received from a caller.
Every NYPD Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) narrative serves two time-critical audiences simultaneously: the radio dispatcher in the Public Safety Answering Center and responding officers reading Mobile Digital Terminals en route.
Complete CAD incident remarks capture six operational pillars: exact location and sub-location, nature and status of the emergency, weapons or hazards, injuries, suspect or vehicle identifiers, and direction and time of flight.
Objective dispatch writing separates established facts from caller inferences by attributing unverified claims to their source and replacing subjective labels with concrete, observable behaviors.
Active-voice phrasing and concise word choice strip away bureaucratic padding and passive constructions so that who did what, to whom, and where is immediately unmistakable.
Note
Original OpenExamPrep practice: the directives, codes, priorities, addresses, maps, and console workflows below are fictional exercise inputs. They do not establish NYPD policy or disclose secure DCAS formats. Use each supplied rule.
Official Definition and Operational Purpose of Written Expression
On the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) Notice of Examination for Exam No. 7307 (Police Communications Technician, Title Code No. 71012), Written Expression is officially defined as:
"Using English words or sentences in writing so that others will understand. Example: A Police Communications Technician might use this ability when recording pertinent information received from a caller."
In the NYPD Communications Section at Public Safety Answering Center I (PSAC I in Brooklyn) and Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II in the Bronx), emergency response operates as a high-speed relay. A 911 call-taker interviews a caller over the phone or via Text-to-911 and enters the incident narrative into the Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. For a practice narrative, consider two intended readers:
- The Radio Dispatcher: Working in a separate dispatch room, the dispatcher reads the CAD remarks aloud over the air to assign sector cars, Highway Patrol units, or the Emergency Service Unit (ESU).
- Responding Field Officers: Field personnel may use vehicle Mobile Digital Terminals (MDTs) or other authorized systems. This describes possible readers, not an instruction to read a device while driving.
Because the radio dispatcher and responding officers cannot hear the caller's voice, they rely entirely on the call-taker's written words. If a CAD narrative omits an apartment number, drops a weapon mention, states a caller's guess as an established fact, or buries urgent threats inside passive prose, officers can walk into an unannounced hazard or search the wrong floor.
Important
A Reader-Focused Writing Check: A clear practice narrative should let its intended reader identify the critical facts quickly. Always reject any option that drops a life-safety fact, obscures who holds a weapon, or blurs the line between what the caller saw and what the caller assumed.
Core Standard 1: Completeness of Critical Facts
Callers dialing 911 under stress rarely speak in neat sentences. Translating chaotic speech into an exam-correct CAD narrative requires preserving six categories of critical facts:
- Exact Location and Sub-Location: Street address, borough, cross streets, and interior or vertical coordinates (apartment, floor, stairwell, basement boiler room, rooftop, courtyard, or storefront name).
- Nature and Status of the Emergency: Whether the incident is happening right now (in progress), just occurred (past crime with fleeing suspect), or involves an active scene hazard.
- Weapons and Scene Hazards: Firearms, knives, blunt instruments, aggressive animals, structural fire, smoke, downed wires, or chemical and gas leaks.
- Injuries and Medical Status: Number of injured persons, wound locations, consciousness, breathing status, and whether EMS is needed.
- Suspect and Vehicle Identifiers: Suspect count, role, sex, age range, height, build, clothing, vehicle color, year, make, model, body style, and plate number.
- Direction, Mode, and Time of Flight: Whether suspects fled on foot, on a moped, or by car; the compass direction and street traveled; and how many minutes ago they left.
On the DCAS exam, watch out for the polished but incomplete rewrite: a grammatically smooth option that quietly drops the apartment number, the weapon, or the direction of flight.
Core Standard 2: Separating Facts from Inference and Speculation
A Police Communications Technician is an objective recorder of reported information, not an on-scene witness. Callers often blend what they perceived (heard, saw, smelled) with what they concluded ("Somebody definitely got shot," "He is acting crazy"). Professional dispatch writing applies two strict rules:
1. Attribute Unverified Claims to the Caller
When a caller reports an unconfirmed sensory cue or belief, attribute the statement to its source using neutral verbs such as states, reports, or advises.
- Flawed Assertion (Inference as Fact): "Two gunshots were fired in the alley behind 310 Nostrand Avenue, and a victim was shot." (Misleads units if the caller only heard loud bangs and saw no one.)
- Exam-Correct Attribution: "Caller at 310 Nostrand Avenue states she heard two loud bangs coming from the rear alley; no suspects or injured persons seen."
2. Replace Subjective Labels with Observable Behaviors
Subjective labels—such as "acting crazy," "visibly psychotic," "drunk," or "looking suspicious"—carry no concrete tactical meaning. Replace every label with the specific physical actions described.
- Flawed Subjective Label: "An intoxicated and crazy male is causing a scene outside the bodega at 502 East 138th Street."
- Exam-Correct Observable Behavior: "Caller reports a male outside the bodega at 502 East 138th Street is stumbling into traffic, shouting at pedestrians, and swinging a glass bottle."
Core Standard 3: Conciseness and Active Voice
Dispatch screens have limited space, and radio airtime is scarce. Bureaucratic filler ("Please be advised that at this point in time...") and passive voice slow comprehension by placing the receiver of the action before the actor.
- Wordy Passive Draft: "At approximately 21:40 hours, a black backpack containing $800 was forcibly removed from the female complainant by two males on a red scooter before a departure was made southbound on Fifth Avenue."
- Concise Active-Voice Entry: "At 21:40 hours, two males on a red scooter snatched a black backpack containing $800 from the female complainant and fled southbound on Fifth Avenue."
The active-voice revision preserves every fact (timestamp, suspect count, vehicle, stolen item, dollar amount, victim, and flight direction) while placing the actors (two males on a red scooter) directly before the verbs (snatched... and fled).
Core Standard 4: Shift-Handoff Notes and Internal Operational Messages
Written Expression also covers relief notes written for incoming PCTs at tour change and status messages sent to Supervising Police Communications Technicians (SPCTs). Every internal operational note must specify:
- Incident or Console Identifier (CAD job number, zone, or terminal).
- Action Taken and Timestamp (agency or supervisor notified and exact 24-hour time).
- Pending Follow-Up (e.g., awaiting a landline callback, awaiting a Con Edison ETA, or monitoring an open Text-to-911 session).
The following table illustrates the result after additional caller details have been confirmed. A rewrite cannot recover information absent from the original report.
Side-by-Side Comparison: Flawed vs. Exam-Correct CAD Narratives
| Operational Requirement | Flawed / Ambiguous CAD Draft | Exam-Correct CAD Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-Location & Weapon Completeness | Caller at 1800 Ocean Parkway reports a domestic dispute with a weapon and says someone is hurt inside. | Caller in Apt 5G at 1800 Ocean Parkway reports her brother slashed her left forearm with a kitchen knife and remains in the kitchen. |
| Fact vs. Unverified Inference | A burglary is occurring in Apt 3B at 74 West 92nd Street because thieves broke the lock. | Caller in Apt 3A at 74 West 92nd Street states she heard loud scraping at the door of Apt 3B; no suspects seen. |
| Observable Behavior vs. Label | A deranged female is acting wild near the turnstiles at the Jay Street subway station. | Station agent at Jay Street subway mezzanine reports a female is jumping over turnstiles and throwing trash cans onto the tracks. |
| Active Voice vs. Passive Padding | A silver sedan was struck by a white box truck at 14:10 hours, and the scene was fled northbound on Queens Boulevard. | At 14:10 hours, a white box truck struck a silver sedan and fled northbound on Queens Boulevard. |
| Actionable Shift-Handoff Note | Watch the open Brooklyn water main job because DEP was called earlier and has not called back. | Incident #2094 at 612 Flatbush Ave: Notified DEP dispatcher at 06:45 hours regarding flooded roadway; DEP crew ETA still pending. |
Official ability definition source: DCAS 7307 Notice of Examination, checked October 13, 2026. Practice classifications and methods above are independently authored.
Independent practice. A 911 caller at 415 Atlantic Avenue reports hearing three loud bangs in the rear courtyard and seeing a man in a gray hoodie run toward Nevins Street, adding, "I am sure he just shot somebody back there." Which CAD narrative entry best applies objective practice-writing standards for factual objectivity and completeness?
A gunman in a gray hoodie shot a victim three times in the rear courtyard of 415 Atlantic Avenue before fleeing on foot toward Nevins Street.
Caller at 415 Atlantic Avenue heard three loud bangs in the rear courtyard, saw a male in a gray hoodie run toward Nevins Street, and suspects a shooting; no firearm or injured person was reported as seen.
Three gunshots were fired in the rear courtyard of 415 Atlantic Avenue, and a suspicious male in a gray hoodie was seen running down the block.
Caller at 415 Atlantic Avenue reports a shooting in progress in the rear courtyard involving an armed perpetrator who fled the scene wearing gray clothing.
Independent practice. A caller tells the Police Communications Technician, "There is a guy acting totally crazy and out of his mind in the pharmacy aisle at 880 Broadway; he is knocking glass medicine bottles onto the floor with a wooden cane and screaming at customers." How should the technician record the subject's behavior in the CAD remarks?
An emotionally disturbed male is acting erratically inside the pharmacy at 880 Broadway and creating a dangerous disturbance for customers in the aisle.
A male who appears intoxicated or mentally unstable is out of control inside the pharmacy at 880 Broadway and carrying a wooden cane.
A hostile customer is having a violent breakdown inside 880 Broadway, breaking store merchandise in the aisle, and threatening shoppers with a weapon.
A male inside the pharmacy at 880 Broadway is screaming at customers and knocking glass bottles onto the floor with a wooden cane.
Independent practice. Which sentence converts the wordy passive draft—"At approximately 03:15 hours, the jewelry store roll-down gate at 142 Canal Street was pried upward by two males utilizing a steel crowbar before an escape was made westbound in a black sedan"—into the clearest active-voice CAD entry?
At approximately 03:15 hours, two males pried open the jewelry store gate at 142 Canal Street with a steel crowbar and fled westbound in a black sedan.
A steel crowbar was used at 03:15 hours by two males to pry open the gate at 142 Canal Street prior to fleeing westbound by sedan.
At 03:15 hours, two males pried open the jewelry store gate with a steel crowbar and fled in a dark vehicle toward the west side.
The roll-down gate at 142 Canal Street had been forced upward at 03:15 hours by two suspects who subsequently departed the location in a black sedan.
Independent practice. Before going off tour at 15:00 hours, a Police Communications Technician must leave a console relief note regarding an open incident at 290 Grand Concourse. Which relief note provides the most actionable, unambiguous handoff for the incoming technician? Supplied facts: Incident #4182, Apartment 1B, Unit 44A requested a Con Edison rush for gas odor at 14:42, and ETA confirmation is still pending.
Job at 290 Grand Concourse is still open; Con Edison was called a while ago about the basement issue, so keep checking on their arrival.
Please monitor the utility job on Grand Concourse because the units on scene requested a rush from the gas company and are still waiting outside.
Incident #4182 at 290 Grand Concourse, Apt 1B: Unit 44A requested a Con Edison rush for a gas odor at 14:42; ETA confirmation still pending.
Unit 44A is holding on a gas odor call at 290 Grand Concourse where notifications were already made earlier this afternoon to the utility desk.
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.