JQuery POST showing as empty array in PHP script - php

Question

In a JS file I am performing this function:
$(function() {
$(".button").click(function() {
//get the button's ID (which is equal to its row's report_id)
var emergency = this.id;
var button = this.attributes['name'].value;
var dataString = 'reportid=' + emergency;
alert(dataString);
if (button == "clockin") {
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/employeetimeclock.php",
data: dataString,
success: function() {
window.location = "/employeetimeclock.php";
}
});
} else if (button == "closereport") {
var r = confirm("Are you sure you want to close this report?\nThis action CANNOT be undone!");
if (r == true) {
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "/closeemergencyreport.php",
data: dataString,
success: function() {
alert("Report Successfully Closed!");
window.location = "/closeemergencyreport.php";
},
error: function() {
alert("An error has occured, the report was not closed");
}
});
} else {
alert("Report was not closed.");
}
}
});
});
For the else if (to closeemergencyreport.php) the code in that php script is as follows:
<?php
require_once("models/config.php");
require_once("models/header.php");
require_once("models/dbconnect.php");
$reportid = $_POST['reportid'];
var_dump($_POST);
$sql = "UPDATE emergency_report SET report_closed = '1' WHERE report_id IN ( $reportid )";
//execute and test if succesful
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());
if($result){
} else{
}
?>
I've done this same exact thing on 3 other pages and it works flawlessly however this is giving me trouble where on that php script the VAR_DUMP is saying it's returning an empty array. I've been reading and rereading the code for about an hour and a half now so I think i'm burnt out and need to have an outside view. Ive been all over the site and no one has had a solution that worked for me.
I know it's posting because fire bug is showing this on the form's page that the javascript is run on:
http://i.imgur.com/hItdVU1.png (sorry cant post images yet)