# Police Department Use of Force Data, 2016-2022

## Police Department Use of Force Data, 2016-2022

Use of Force data (UOF) collection and reporting requirements were updated significantly in 2016. This dataset reflects Use of Force incidents occurring between December 21, 2016, through April 11, 2022. Each record corresponds to an incident where an officer used force. For any incident, there may be more than one officer involved and/or more than one type of force used.

Use of Force data in this release was captured under the standards set forth in DGO 5.01, Use of Force, passed on December 21, 2016. Use of Force standards have changed in subsequent revisions of DGO 5.01 and care should be taken when comparing Use of Force data across differing standards.

#### How can this Dataset be best used?

The information is collected by department supervisors (usually Sergeants), and can be used to help understand the number, location, subject, reason for, and outcomes of, uses of force conducted by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD).

This dataset can be used to provide counts of incidents involving use of force as well as counts of force, by type, date, subject demographics, and location.

#### What is Reasonable Force?

The San Franciso Police Department defines Reasonable Force as an objective standard of force viewed from the perspective of a reasonable officer, without the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, and based on the totality of the circumstances known to or perceived by the officer at the time. ([SFPD DGO 5.01, Use of Force Policy (Rev. 12/21/16)](https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/DGO%205.01.pdf))

#### What is a Reportable Force?

The San Francisco Police Department defines Reportable Force as: Any use of force which is required to overcome subject resistance to gain compliance that results in death, injury, complaint of injury in the presence of an officer, or complaint of pain that persists beyond the use of a physical control hold. Any use of force involving the use of personal body weapons, chemical agents, impact weapons, extended range impact weapons, vehicle interventions, and firearms. Any intentional pointing of a firearm at a subject. ([SFPD DGO 5.01, Use of Force Policy (Rev.12/21/16)](https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/sites/default/files/2018-11/DGO%205.01.pdf))

#### How is Use of Force counted?

Use of Force is counted per incident, per officer, per subject and by force type. For example, if an officer points a firearm at a subject while another officer uses physical control on the same subject, use of force will be counted as 1 incident, 2 officers, 1 subject and 2 types of force.

There may be more than one use of force type reported for a single incident or subject. As a result, the number of incidents will be lower than the number of total uses of force.

#### What is not captured in this dataset?

This dataset does not include any potentially identifiable information of officers conducting use of force. Per California Penal Code 832.7(a) and 832.8, demographic information related to an officer is not releasable. This dataset may not capture other law enforcement agency use of force within San Francisco (BART PD, US Park Police, for example.)

#### What privacy controls are this data set subject to?

The release of this data must balance the need for disclosure to the public against the risk of violating the privacy of those individuals present within the dataset. As such, the dataset is subject to several privacy controls to ensure anonymity for all persons within the data.

**Unique IDs**

This dataset does not provide an officer’s star number as Officer star numbers can be changed and/or reused over time. One-time generated unique ids (UOF EMPLOYEE UID, SUPERVISOR UID, and CURRENT EMPLOYEE UID) are provided to enable accurate tracking of officers in the dataset.

**Juvenile Data**

Per California Government Code (GC) § 6254 and California Welfare and Institutions Code § 827, incidents identifying juvenile information will not be available in this dataset. In the case of an incident where multiple individuals, juvenile and adult, are present, the entire incident is removed. There were 391 juvenile incidents retained from this dataset for this reason.

**Mental Health Records**

Medical health information is excluded from this dataset to protect potentially identifiable information, private health information and the ability to link records across datasets. There were 525 mental health related incidents retained from this dataset for this reason.

#### Confidential Records

Confidential Records Records of incidents falling under certain crime categories are commonly redacted to protect the identity of these particularly vulnerable victims and affected populations. The categories subject to redaction include incident types which involve a response by the Special Victims Unit, Homicide Unit, Crisis Intervention Team, and Special Investigations Division. There were 424 confidential incidents, and 258 domestic violence incidents subject to redaction.

**Incident Location**

Incident locations are shown at the intersection level only. Approximately 7% of incident locations do not have a corresponding intersection and were not geocoded. 1.4% of the incidents occurred Outside of SF. 5.6% of incidents were not geocoded due to errors made in the data entry, i.e., misspelled street names, street names no longer used (Army St), or parallel streets listed as intersections (Golden Gate Ave/Turk St).

#### Field Definitions

<table><thead><tr><th width="365">SFPD Data Element</th><th>Description/Definition</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>UOF DATE</td><td>Date of UOF Incident - MM/DD/YYYY</td></tr><tr><td>UOF YEAR</td><td>Year of UOF Incident</td></tr><tr><td>UOF QUARTER</td><td>Quarter of UOF Incident</td></tr><tr><td>INCIDENT DATE</td><td>Date of UOF Incident</td></tr><tr><td>INCIDENT TIME</td><td>Time of UOF Incident</td></tr><tr><td>INCIDENT DATETIME</td><td>Date &#x26; Time of UOF Incident</td></tr><tr><td>INCIDENT NUMBER</td><td>UOF Incident Number</td></tr><tr><td>INCIDENT ID</td><td>Unique Identification Number of UOF Incident</td></tr><tr><td>CAD NUMBER</td><td>CAD Number</td></tr><tr><td>REPORT NUMBER</td><td>Number of UOF Report- coincides with Incident in Crime Data Warehouse</td></tr><tr><td>REPORTED DATE</td><td>Distinct from Incident Date, Report Date is when the UOF report was filed.</td></tr><tr><td>REPORTED TIME</td><td>Distinct from Incident time, Report Time is time of when the report was filed.</td></tr><tr><td>CREATED DATE (EIS Entry Date)</td><td>Date UOF Incident was entered by EIS</td></tr><tr><td>MODIFIED DATE (EIS Modification Date)</td><td>Date UOF Incident was modified by EIS</td></tr><tr><td>CALL TYPE</td><td>Type of Call officers responded to</td></tr><tr><td>ON_VIEW_DISPATCH</td><td>Dispatched or On viewed calls</td></tr><tr><td>INCIDENT TYPE</td><td>Type of UOF Incident</td></tr><tr><td>BUREAU</td><td>Bureau</td></tr><tr><td>DISTRICT</td><td>District of where the UOF Incident occurred</td></tr><tr><td>INTERSECTION</td><td>Intersection of where the UOF Incident occurred</td></tr><tr><td>ANALYSIS NEIGHBORHOOD</td><td>Neighborhood of the UOF Incident</td></tr><tr><td>SUPERVISOR DISTRICT</td><td>Supervisor District of the UOF Incident</td></tr><tr><td>POLICE COMPANY</td><td>Police Company</td></tr><tr><td>POINT</td><td>Point (Lat/Lon)</td></tr><tr><td>FORCE_IN_POLICY</td><td>Force in Policy</td></tr><tr><td>INCIDENT STATUS</td><td>Status of UOF Incident</td></tr><tr><td>UOF EMPLOYEE_UID</td><td>UOF Employee Unique Identifier</td></tr><tr><td>EMPLOYEE RANK AT INCIDENT</td><td>Rank of the Employee, i.e. Q 2, Q3, Q4</td></tr><tr><td>UNIT ID</td><td>Unit Identifier</td></tr><tr><td>PHOTOS TAKEN</td><td>Were photos taken of the employee</td></tr><tr><td>PLAIN CLOTHES</td><td>Was the employee in plain clothes</td></tr><tr><td>SUPERVISOR_UID</td><td>Supervisor Unique Identifier</td></tr><tr><td>SUPERVISOR RANK</td><td>Supervisor's Rank at the Incident</td></tr><tr><td>CURRENT EMPLOYEE_UID</td><td>Employee Unique Identifier</td></tr><tr><td>CREATED DATE (Entry Date)</td><td>Created date and/or Entry</td></tr><tr><td>EFF START DT</td><td>Effective Start Date of the Employee's Current Department</td></tr><tr><td>EFF END DT</td><td>Effective End Date of Employee</td></tr><tr><td>MODIFIED DATE (Current)</td><td>Modified Date</td></tr><tr><td>SUBJECT NUMBER</td><td>Subject Unique Identifier</td></tr><tr><td>SUBJECT AGE</td><td>Subject Age</td></tr><tr><td>SUBJECT RACE</td><td>Subject Race</td></tr><tr><td>SUBJECT SEX</td><td>Subject Sex</td></tr><tr><td>CHARGES</td><td>Subject Charges</td></tr><tr><td>DISPOSITION</td><td>Subject Disposition</td></tr><tr><td>SUBJECT INJURED</td><td>Subject Injured</td></tr><tr><td>COMPLAINT OF PAIN</td><td>Subject Complaint of Pain</td></tr><tr><td>SUBJECT DEATH</td><td>Subject Death</td></tr><tr><td>LANGUAGE SPOKEN</td><td>Subject Language Spoken</td></tr><tr><td>SUBJECT HOMELESS</td><td>Subject Homeless</td></tr><tr><td>SUBJECT ARMED</td><td>Subject Armed</td></tr><tr><td>WEAPON TYPE</td><td>Weapon Type</td></tr><tr><td>REASON DESC</td><td>Reason Description</td></tr><tr><td>FORCE DESC</td><td>Type of Force Used</td></tr><tr><td>FORCE USED OTHER</td><td>Other Type of Force Used</td></tr><tr><td>TYPE OF FORCE EFFECTIVE</td><td>Type of Force Effective</td></tr><tr><td>FORCE USED COMMENTS</td><td>Force Used Comments</td></tr><tr><td>COUNT OF INCIDENTS</td><td>Count of Each Incident</td></tr><tr><td>COUNT OF FORCE</td><td>Count of each Type of Force</td></tr><tr><td>DATA AS OF</td><td>Timestamp data was processed in source system</td></tr><tr><td>DATA LOADED AT</td><td>Timestamp when the data was uploaded to the Open Data Portal</td></tr></tbody></table>


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://sfdigitalservices.gitbook.io/dataset-explainers/police-department-use-of-force-data-2016-2022.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.
