Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: police reports

No. Nothing needs to be perfectly accurate in order to be admissible. Challenges to the accuracy of evidence go to its weight (i.e., they affect how much credence the judge or jury should give it), not to its admissibility.

Re: police reports

Your question is somewhat loaded.

A police report is rarely, if ever, admissible in a court of law. What happens instead, is the police officer comes in to court and testifies about what happened. The report is only there to refresh their memory when they testify.

Therefore, if the report is inaccurate, the officer's testimony will be inaccurate. Then it is a question of whether or not the judge and/or jury believes the TESTIMONY of the officer.

The best way to get the truth out is through rigorous cross-examination by a highly trained person. In other words, an experienced trial lawyer.

So, to answer your question, "no." There is no legal requirement that the report be accurate. But, the officer can be tripped up if a good lawyer cross-examines him.

Therefore, hiring a good lawyer is very important in cases where there are inaccuracies in the reports.