NILES — Each day, the Niles Police Department, 1600 Silverbrook Ave., creates a police call log that includes all the call officers responded to.

The Leader Publications then takes these call logs and presents their information — date, time, city block location and type of call — in an easier-to-read format.

Still, some types of calls are vague. Some could be interpreted to mean a number of incidents, while other types of calls have multiple criminal offenses listed.

Niles Police Chief Jim Millin provided information on some of the trickier call log terminology.

A list of police call log phrases and Millin’s description of each are below. Acronyms in parentheses are used in police call logs but are spelled out.

Most calls below are typically left out of Leader Publications rewrites but are some of the most frequent calls each day.

Follow-up (F/U)

A follow-up is when officers return to a victim, witness, suspect or crime scene to gather more information for an investigation.

In police call logs, a follow-up notation typically follows shortly after the incident that caused it is logged, Millin said.

The Leader Publications typically leaves follow-ups out of its reports.

Medical calls (P1, P2 and MFR)

When a 911 call is made for a medical emergency, Niles police may sometimes get to the scene before an ambulance service that is outside the city can get there.

A “P1” or “P2” in call logs are both for the police department’s and the ambulance service’s records, Millin said.

The Leader Publications typically leaves medical calls out of its reports.

Meals

Those in jail need to eat, Millin said. If food runs low, an officer will make a run for inmates, leading to a “meals” notch in call logs.

The Leader Publications typically leaves meals out of its reports.

Welfare check

“People will call and ask us to check on someone’s welfare when something’s just not in the norm anymore,” Millin said.

Family and friends of someone they are concerned about typically call, Millin said. If someone is slurring words over the phone or cannot be reached for days on end, it may be easier for an officer to check up on someone than another person who may be living miles away.

Leader Publications typically leaves welfare checks out of its reports.

Civil

This phrase refers to civil law, or laws concerning private relations between people.

Niles police may be called for a civil dispute, but officers can only act on violations criminal law.

“That sometimes upsets people, but they need to understand,” Millin said.

The chief gave an example of civil law for reference: Someone hires a builder to construct a deck for their home. As part of their contract, the builder asks for their money up front but never finishes the work.

Millin said officers tend to give people who made civil dispute calls options of what can be done, such as taking the matter to civil court.

Leader Publications typically leaves civil disputes out of its reports.

Traffic stop (TS)

Traffic stops occur when officers pull over the driver of a vehicle, usually while on patrol. Reasons can range from suspicious activity to reckless driving to a broken tail light.

If the stop results in an offense, such as the driver having a suspended driver’s license, the call log will tend to reflect the offense rather than the stop, Millin said.

Assists and motorists assists (MA)

Both types of assists mean that an officer is either helping another government agency or a citizen.

Examples could be an officer going to the scene of a water main break that a Niles public works crew is working on or an officer helping a driver having vehicle issues in traffic.

Leader Publications typically leaves assists out of its reports.