When writing an incident report, it’s better to use:

In a report, it's essential to write as many direct quotes as possible. That's why it's good to have your field notes on hand to check your notes from when the incident was happening and write what was said by those involved. For example: – Indirect quote - Mrs. Smith said that a young man stole her purse. – Direct quote - Mrs. Smith said: “A young man stole my purse”. It's okay to use foul language, as long as someone else used it and it's necessary for the report. Also, it's better not to use asterisks in place of curse words to avoid confusion. Source: Sollars, Robert D. “Security Report Writing: Tips for Creating Pro Security Reports” on silvertracsoftware.com, 2019. Photo by rawpixel-com on Freepik