This report is updated approximately 45 days after the end each quarter in the calendar year.
Walkthrough - Use of Force Dashboard
1. Report Overview
The Use of Force Dashboard is an interactive data visualization of Portland Police Bureau (PPB) uses of force. For more information on the PPB’s policies on the use of force and the investigation procedures for deadly force incidents, see the following sections of the Directives Manual:
- 1010.00 Use of Force
- 1015.00 Less Lethal Weapons and Tools
- 0910.00 Use of Force Reporting, Review, and Investigation
Use of force data is updated on a quarterly basis.
2. Technical Specifications
This report has been customized to work on personal computers, smart phones and tablets. For the best experience, it is recommended you use a desktop or laptop computer.
No additional software is required to use this report. The report runs completely within the internet browser using JavaScript. Most modern browsers automatically activate JavaScript; however, it can be turned off based on the security settings of the computer. For more information on activating JavaScript, refer to the browser’s help section or click here for help on Windows computers and click here for help on Apple computers.
3. Using the Interactive Features
The Use of Force Dashboard is an interactive data visualization. This interactivity allows users to filter the information based on the questions they are hoping to answer with this dataset. An overview of the pre-built filters and explanations of the visualizations is included below.
a. Filters
Filters are enabled on the dashboard for use in narrowing the scope of the data. This dashboard utilizes visuals as filters, meaning that many of the visualizations and figures can be filtered by clicking within the charts and graphs. For example, clicking a date header on a chart will filter the entire dashboard for that date.
Multiple filters can also be selected. Once a selection has been made a user can continue to click on additional items to filter the visuals further. To make multiple selections within the same graph or chart hold down ‘Ctrl’ on your keyboard and make your selections by clicking several items with your mouse cursor. A user can also click and drag within the same chart or graph to make multiple selections. Click the same item to deselect it and remove the filter. See section “c.” below for additional features related to undoing and resetting filters.
b. Tooltips
Additional information will sometimes be displayed by hovering over certain icons and most charts. Within certain charts, graphs and figures hover the cursor over an item and a pop-up will appear displaying additional text.
c. Toolbar
The toolbar, located at the bottom of the visualization, contains several buttons that assist in the analysis of the data.
The “Undo” and “Redo” buttons become active when filters have been selected. They operate just like the Undo and Redo buttons in other programs such as Microsoft Word.
The “Reset” button reverts all filters back to their original settings. This is a great way to start with a “clean slate” after clicking several filters.
Tableau is the name of the software used to create this report visualization.
The “Download” button has not been enabled, however data can be downloaded in a raw format on the final tab.
4. Visualizations Walkthrough
a. Summary page
This graphic provides a summary of all calls for service (both dispatched/9-1-1 and those initiated by officers), custodies and uses of force as a percentage of those figures for the dates selected.
The dropdown at the top of the page allows for selection of independent quarters or all quarters together.
Hovering over the information icon in the custodies box will reveal a pop-up for additional information.
Below the data is an infographic which provides an example case of a potential use of force scenario. It is not meant to depict a typical use of force instance, but rather act as a tool for understanding how use of force is categorized and counted for reporting purposes.
b. Timeline page
The line graph visual on the Timeline page allows users to view multiple time periods since July 2017 through the most recent quarter of released data. Note that uses of force counting methods were updated in Q3 2017. Hovering over the red triangle on the dashboard will reveal a pop-up with more information. Additionally, another pop-up icon is available in the top-left of the page which provides definitions for the listed filters.
The Date Selector dropdown can be utilized by selecting any of the current or previous individual quarters, or aggregated for all time periods.
There are also four radio button filters. One more can be selected at a time to filter the line graphs.
Hover over the information icon in the color legend for definitions of the measures.
Hovering over the line measures will also reveal pop-ups of the counts and their respective occurrence months.
c. Demographics page
Each of the top two charts on this page list either the subject of force’s race or sex, along with the total number of times and percentage of times a person of a listed race or sex was involved in a use of force event. Furthermore, the subject’s demographics are broken down by how often they were armed during a use of force event, or whether an officer perceived them as being under the influence of
drugs and/or alcohol, undergoing a mental health crisis or houseless.
For example, in the table above, out of the 1,020 individuals that were involved in use of force incidents, 232 of them were women, representing 22.7% of the overall population. Additionally, 16.4% of those females were armed at the time of use of force, 44.4% were perceived as being under the influence of drugs or alcohol and the final two categories in that row show how often females were perceived as having mental health crises or houseless.
Any of the listed headers (for both the subject race and subject sex tables) can also be clicked to filter the rest of the figures on the page. For example, by clicking on the ‘Male’ header in the above table, the “Use of Force by Subject Race” will filter for male subjects only. Click ‘Male’ again to deselect.
Below the two tables is a histogram of subject’s ages as a percentage of the total. Each bar or header can be clicked to filter the tables for the selected age ranges. Hover over the bars to reveal a pop-up of the overall percentage as well as the actual count.
d. Force by Subject Status page
Each statistic on this page is listed as a percentage of the total of the number of times a type of force was used, or as a count for each column. All possible use of force type is listed along the left side of the visual in alphabetic order. Definitions for the use of force types can be accessed through the hyperlink at the bottom of the page.
There are six potential items for comparison available in the “Comparison Selector” dropdown in the top-left corner of the page. The default selection is ‘Category Totals’, which will list the number of times a force type was used for the selected time period (also filterable using the ‘Date Filter’ dropdown’).
All other listed options will provide a percentage of the total calculation for each column.
In the example below, the ‘Subject Armed’ selection has been made. There are two possible answers for whether a subject was armed doing a use of force instance, yes, or no. The percentages listed show how often a particular use of type was used for each of these answers. In the example below, when a subject was armed, an Aerosol Restraint use of force type was used 1.9% of the time compared to all other use of force types. When a subject was not armed (the “No” column), an Aerosol Restraint was used even less frequently at 0.6% of the time.
Figure boxes are also shaded to correspond to their overall percentage of the total. So a force type used more frequently will have a darker shade of blue, while force types used less often will be a lighter shade of blue comparatively.
Note that officer-involved shootings (except to put down a suffering animal or when used against an aggressive animal) and instances in which deadly force were used are not included in this dataset or anywhere else in this workbook. These statistics are reported separately and cases involving officer-involved shootings can be accessed using the hyperlink at the bottom-right of the Force by Subject Status page.
e. Call Categories page
The Call Categories page is set up much in the same way as the Force by Subject Status page. The same six options for comparison are available, in addition to filters for how a call was initiated, when it took place (by quarter) and by subject race. The top twenty initial call categories by count are listed along the left side of the page in order of frequency from most to least (in total, so they will not change when filters are applied).
Each column will sum to 100%. So, in the example below, when an Asian subject was involved in a use of force case, the call was categorized as a ‘Disturbance’ 23.3% of the time. The chart does not say that Asian subjects accounted for 23.3% of all call categories that began as disturbance calls.
5. Data Download page
On the final tab of the dashboard, “Data Download”, data can be downloaded by clicking the supplied hyperlink. The dataset includes one row of data per officer and subject interaction when force was used. For a visual representation of how force instances are categorized and counted please refer to the infographic on the first tab of the dashboard. Users may want to view additional data points associated with use of force instances, so the PPB has made these fields available. Instructions for downloading the open data are included at the top of the “Download Open Data” tab.
Note that some use of force types changed starting November 15, 2022. Former types no longer considered use of force include 'Static Box-In', 'Less Lethal - Aggressive Animal', and 'Firearm Discharge - Aggressive/Suffering Animal'. These former types of force will still exist in the data up to November 14, 2022, but are no longer considered types of force.
Types of force whose names have been changed (including retroactively in the data download) include: 'Aerosol Restraint' to 'Chemical Incapacitant - Handheld', 'Control Hold with Injury' added to current 'Control Against Resistance', and 'Less Lethal' to 'Kinetic Impact Projectile'.
New types of force being collected starting November 15, 2022 include: 'Baton Jab', 'Baton Push', 'Chemical Incapacitant Launch', 'Flash Sound Distraction Device', and 'Tear Gas'.
Metadata for Use of Force Dashboard
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Record ID | Randomly generated number for calculation purposes |
| Year | Year of force event |
| Month | Month of force event |
| DOW | Day of week of force event |
| Hour (6Hr) | Hour period of occurrence of force event |
| Category of Force Event - Measured at Event Level | Level of supervisor review based on force type and event circumstances, as defined by Portland Police Bureau's (PPB) Directive 1010.00 regarding use of force |
| Initial Call Type | Bureau of Emergency Communications (BOEC) assigned call type |
| Initial Call Category | Bureau of Emergency Communications assigned call category |
| Type of Call | Whether call was initiated by an officer (Self-Initiated/Directed) or dispatched by BOEC (Dispatched) or assisting another agency (Outside Agency) |
| Disposition/Custody | Outcome of interaction and highest level of charge, where applicable |
| When force was used, was more than one officer on scene? | Indicates whether more than one officer was on scene at the time of force |
| Officer | Randomly generated number in order to create calculations |
| Officer Tenure | Officer's years of service at the time of force event |
| Officer Precinct | Officer's assigned precinct or unit at the time of force event |
| Did the officer indicate that they had previously interacted with the subject? | Whether the officer indicated in their report that they had prior knowledge of the subject at the time of force |
| Subject | Randomly generated number for calculation purposes |
| SubjectInstance | Unique identifier combining randomly generated subject number and randomly generated record number for purposes of calculations |
| Subject Age | Subject's age in years at the time of the force event |
| Subject - Race | Race of subject |
| Subject - Sex | Sex of subject |
| Subject - Transient | Subjects identified as houseless based on force reports, RegJIN MNI, RegJIN Narratives, and associated reports |
| Subject Resistance - 1 | Level of subject resistance during the application of force (note: numbers do not indicate order of force events, but rather are used to indicate which resistance and force distance value coincides with the force type) |
| Force Applied - 1 | Type of force applied (note: numbers do not indicate order of force events, but rather are used to indicate which resistance and force distance value coincides with the force type) |
| Application of Force Distance - 1 | Distance between officer and subject at the time of application of force (note: numbers do not indicate order of force events, but rather are used to indicate which resistance and force distance value coincides with the force type) |
| Subject Resistance - 2 | Level of subject resistance during application of force with "2" label |
| Force Applied - 2 | Force type applied for "2" labeled instance |
| Application of Force Distance - 2 | Distance between officer and subject at the time of application of force labeled "2" |
| Subject Resistance - 3 | Level of subject resistance during application of force with "3" label |
| Force Applied - 3 | Force type applied for "3" labeled instance |
| Application of Force Distance - 3 | Distance between officer and subject at the time of application of force labeled "3" |
| Subject Resistance - 4 | Level of subject resistance during application of force with "4" label |
| Force Applied - 4 | Force type applied for "4" labeled instance |
| Application of Force Distance - 4 | Distance between officer and subject at the time of application of force labeled "4" |
| Subject Resistance - 5 | Level of subject resistance during application of force with "5" label |
| Force Applied - 5 | Force type applied for "5" labeled instance |
| Application of Force Distance - 5 | Distance between officer and subject at the time of application of force labeled "5" |
| Subject Resistance - 6 | Level of subject resistance during application of force with "6" label |
| Force Applied - 6 | Force type applied for "6" labeled instance |
| Application of Force Distance - 6 | Distance between officer and subject at the time of application of force labeled "6" |
| Subject Resistance - 7 | Level of subject resistance during application of force with "7" label |
| Force Applied - 7 | Force type applied for "7" labeled instance |
| Application of Force Distance - 7 | Distance between officer and subject at the time of application of force labeled "7" |
| Subject Resistance - 8 | Level of subject resistance during application of force with "8" label |
| Force Applied - 8 | Force type applied for "8" labeled instance |
| Application of Force Distance - 8 | Distance between officer and subject at the time of application of force labeled "8" |
| Reason for Medical - Force Related Injuries | Medical called for injuries sustained from force applied |
| Reason for Medical - Self Inflicted Injuries | Medical was called for self-inflicted injuries by subject |
| Reason for Medical - Drug/Alcohol | Medical was called for drug/alcohol related issues |
| Reason for Medical - Mental Health Issues | Medical was called for mental health issues |
| Reason for Medical - Preexisting Injuries | Medical was called for injuries the subject sustained prior to the force event |
| Reason for Medical - Other Medical Issues | Medical was called for other reasons than those listed |
| Reason for Medical - Unknown | Medical was called for unknown reasons |
| Medical Not Needed | Medical response was not needed for the event |
| No weapon (unarmed) | Subject was unarmed during force event |
| Firearm | Subject was armed with a firearm during the force event |
| Firearm - Replica | Subject was armed with a replica firearm during the force event |
| Firearm - Implied | Subject implied being armed with a firearm during the force event |
| Knife / Edged Weapon / Stabbing Instrument | Subject was armed with a knife, edged weapon or stabbing instrument during the force event |
| Blunt Object | Subject was armed with a blunt object during the force event |
| Needle / Spit / Bodily Fluids | Subject was armed with and/or used a needle, spit or other bodily fluids as a weapon during the force event |
| Weapon Present or reported but not used or threatened use | A weapon was present or reported to be present during the force event, but the subject did not utilize or threaten officers with mentioned reported weapon |
| Other Weapon | Subject was armed with another type of weapon not already listed during the force event |
| Under the Influence of Drugs - Prior to Force, Perceived Condition | Prior to force being used, officer perceived the subject as being under the influence of drugs |
| Under the Influence of Alcohol - Prior to Force, Perceived Condition | Prior to force being used, officer perceived the subject as being under the influence of alcohol |
| Record Count | The number of times a record (or FDCR) has been submitted. In the overwhelming majority of cases there is only a single record submitted, however if an officer uses more instances of force than can be tracked on a single FDCR (up to 8) a second will be submitted under the same Record ID. The 'Record Count' will display how many duplicate instances there are for an officer in a single event. For example, if an officer uses the same type of force on the same subject in the same instance 16 times, there will be a Record Count of "2". |
| Mental Health Crisis - Prior to Force, Perceived Lack of Compliance | Prior to force being used, the subject was perceived by the officer to be undergoing a mental health crisis |