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