Case number

A case number is an identifier assigned to an agency's case or written report. It helps staff retrieve the record and connect related documents. In police records it may also be called a report number or incident number. It may differ from the dispatch call number, an online submission confirmation, and any later court case number.

Identifying the record you actually have

A public-safety event can produce records in several systems. The communications system manages the call and response; the records management system maintains reports; a court maintains its own case file. Their identifiers can be related through cross-references without being the same value.

Houston Police Department's online-reporting page explicitly distinguishes a temporary case reference from the official incident number issued after approval. Seattle describes a similar distinction between an immediate transaction number and an official police report number. These are local workflows, not universal numbering formats. Houston reporting process, Seattle reporting process

The exact characters matter. Prefixes, leading zeros, year components, and punctuation can distinguish records. An identifier should be preserved as text rather than shortened or treated as a quantity.

Example

Hypothetical example: A resident submits an online property-damage report and receives temporary reference T-2061. After review, the agency issues official report 26-008416. A later supplemental report adds photographs under the official number.

The two numbers identify stages in the example's records process. They do not establish two separate damage incidents. The supplement adds information to the case; it does not necessarily create a new underlying event. These invented formats do not represent a real agency's convention.

Common confusion

A call number identifies a dispatch event. A case number identifies an agency case or report. Some systems coordinate or reuse numbers, while others maintain separate sequences. A matching date alone is not enough to link them.

A court docket number belongs to a court's proceedings. A police case number does not show that charges were filed or a court case exists. Likewise, the mere issuance of a police report number does not establish the truth of every allegation in the report.

Looking up or counting cases

Retain the agency name, date, and exact identifier. Numbers may repeat across agencies or years. Do not estimate case totals from gaps or the largest visible number: the sequence may include other report types, withheld records, or unused values. For analysis, identify whether multiple rows are separate cases, supplemental documents, or repeated updates to one case before counting unique identifiers.

Related terms

• Call number
• Police report
• Records management system
• Supplemental report

Sources

• Houston Police Department — Online Police Report: temporary reference versus official incident identifier.
• Seattle Police Department — Online Crime Reporting: temporary transaction, approved report number, and supplemental information tied to an existing report.