Mark Tagliareni, who teaches Fundamentals of Report Writing, and Ely Alfonso, who teaches Legal Use of Force for the Law Enforcement Professional, both come together to discuss Report Writing for Use of Force. They walk you through how to write out the subject’s behavior, writing down why you made the decisions you made or the use of force that you used, how to write objectively, and so much more.

The instructor, Mark Tagliareni, started his career in law enforcement in 1996. Tagliareni began his career as an officer with the Bergen County Probation Department. While working as a probation officer, Tagliareni wrote detailed violation of probation reports and spent dozens of hours in Superior Court testifying to these reports. He began working for a municipal NJ Police department in 1998 and retired in December 2022. As a member of this Police Department, he made hundreds of arrests and was consistently recognized for his proactivity and communication skills. Tagliareni was promoted to sergeant in 2016, and he was the Officer in Charge of the Records Division and coordinated the department’s criminal interdiction unit. Sergeant Tagliareni holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from the University of Delaware and a Master of Arts in Education from Seton Hall University.

Ely Alfonso is a Police Lieutenant in Manassas, Virginia. She is a New Jersey native and a first-generation Cuban born in the US. Ely left John Jay College in her junior year to pursue a Law Enforcement career in Manassas, Virginia.

Ely attended the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy and graduated with the 101 st session in December of 1999. She was promoted to sergeant in 2006 and to lieutenant in 2012. She has been her agency’s Defensive Tactics Program Manager since 2006. Ely has various certifications that are related to Use of Force such as Taser Instructor, Force Science Analyst, In-Custody Death Prevention, and ASP /Baton. Ely is a certified IADLETS instructor and Department of Criminal Justice Services (VA) instructor. Ely has also been a member of the Crisis Negotiations team since 2002 and the Team Leader since 2017. Throughout her career, she has received numerous commendations, awards, a valor award, a lifesaving award, and Officer of the Year in 2006. Ely is currently in her 25th year of service and is a Patrol Evening Shift Lieutenant. Twenty of those years have been spent in Patrol. To say that Patrol is her passion is an understatement and it is only second to all things Defensive Tactics. Ely has been an avid martial artist since she was 13 and is currently a student of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at Gracie Barra Princeton, where she has helped develop a BJJ course specifically for Law Enforcement.