The collection and reporting of data includes any use of force that results in:
The definition of serious bodily injury is based, in part, upon Title 18 United States Code (U.S.C), Section 2246 (4), and means bodily injury that involves a substantial risk of death, unconsciousness, protracted and obvious disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty. Serious bodily injury would include all gunshot wounds (regardless of whether they are penetrating or grazing), apparent broken bones, possible internal injury, severe laceration, stitches, sutures, chipped teeth, loss of teeth, canine bites requiring medical attention, unconsciousness due to an applied carotid artery hold, and injuries severe enough to require medical intervention and/or hospitalization. The term medical intervention does not include routine evaluation of the subject to determine fitness for arrest or detention by an emergency medical technician or medical staff at a medical facility.
If agencies experience no qualifying use-of-force incidents within a month, they submit a zero report.
" }, { "heading": "Agency participation", "text": "Agencies voluntarily participate in the National Use-of-Force Data Collection. They are responsible for submitting use-of-force information to the FBI concerning their own officers connected to incidents meeting the criteria of the data collection. Agencies’ data must conform to the FBI’s submission standards, specifications and required deadlines. FBI personnel are available to assist contributing agencies in quality assurance practices and reporting procedures. Agencies report these data either to their state’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program, a designated UCR program for a particular organization (such as with federal agencies), or directly to the FBI.
An enrolled agency has completed the required steps to obtain an account to submit data to the National Use-of-Force Data Collection. Once an agency has provided an incident report meeting the scope of the data collection, or a report indicating no use of force met data reporting criteria, an agency would be considered a participant in the data collection. Circumstances that change enrollment and/or participation status include when an agency no longer wishes to participate or ceases to operate as a law enforcement agency, if an agency is in a data submission partnership with a managing agency, and/or if an agency’s data was received for a year previous to their enrollment. Regardless of an agency’s enrollment status, qualifying data will be included in this report, and past participation will still be available in historical data.
The data found here represents use-of-force incidents that have been reported to the FBI, and may not include all incidents that have occurred. Because the National Use-of-Force Data Collection is new and the number of agencies contributing data likely will not represent the majority of the nation until participation grows, parameters have been established for data representation. These parameters depend on the coverage rate for each state, which is defined as the total law enforcement officer population represented by the use-of-force data reported.
", "(Item non-response refers to items for which contributors either do not answer a question or answer \"unknown and unlikely to ever be known.\")
", "The National Use-of-Force Data Collection is only releasing national level data reflecting the 60 percent threshold. Regional and state levels of analysis will not be available in order to protect the privacy of individuals involved in use of force incidents. Datasets at the regional and state level contain smaller numbers of reported incidents and less variety within the data elements. These variables increase the risk of linking specific answers in the data to individuals involved in such incidents. The FBI UCR Program is working diligently to develop new and advanced ways to maximize data transparency while also fulfilling our responsibility to protect the privacy of all individuals.
", "The Rule of Ten
", "This is an accepted methodology used by statistical agencies to ensure that contributed data about a particular incident isn’t so unique that the specific incident and those involved could be easily identified from published data. There are a variety of ways to protect this sensitive data and the privacy of those involved in an incident. Data elements with fewer than 10 observations may be combined with other data elements from the same question to limit identifiability (“Rule of Ten”). Likewise, rates, percentages, and weighted counts may replace literal numbers to further mask specific incidents. Because of the structure of the data publication parameters, the Rule of Ten will only be at the 60% and 80% threshold levels for public release. Participation data released at the 40% and below level will not be subject to the Rule of Ten requirements.
", "Key variables include subject injuries received and the type of force used.
", "For states that contribute data representing less than 40 percent of its total officer population, the FBI will not disseminate data. For all participating states, regardless of the level of data reported, narrative information will be provided to describe each state’s efforts to take part in the data collection. Finally, no statements will be made representing data as a national estimate until the coverage rate of the officer population reaches a minimum of 80 percent for the nation.
" ] }, { "heading": "Avoid ranking and comparisons", "text": "Individual agencies and locales. The FBI’s criminal justice statistics are sometimes used to compile rankings of individual jurisdictions. These incomplete analyses have often created misleading perceptions which adversely affect geographic entities and their residents. The FBI has a long-standing policy against ranking law enforcement agencies on the basis of reported data alone. Data users should not rank locales because there are many factors that cause the nature and type of incidents to vary from place to place. Rankings ignore the uniqueness of each locale.
FBI data and data from other organizations. The FBI’s National Use-of-Force Data Collection is one of a number of programs that collect and report information concerning law enforcement use of force in the United States. Each organization has its own purpose and may use different methods to collect and report information or focus on somewhat different aspects of this important topic. Therefore, care should be taken not to compare the FBI’s use-of-force data to data provided by other entities.
" } ], "links": [] }