Police reported in wood (5)
I believe the answer is:
copse
'wood' is the definition.
(a copse is a small wood)
'police reported' is the wordplay.
'police' becomes 'cops' (cop can informally mean a police officer).
'reported' shows a homophone (sound like).
'cops' is a homophone of 'COPSE'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for copse that I've seen before include "Clump of small trees for regular cropping" , "Scope for a small wood" , "Small group of trees" , "Stand of trees" , "Dense thicket of trees" .)