FBI Announces Launch of National Use-Of-Force Data Collection

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The FBI on Wednesday announced that the official launch of the National Use-of-Force Data Collection will take place on January 1, 2019.

At the request of major law enforcement organizations, the FBI established the National Use-of-Force Data Collection in an effort to promote more informed conversations regarding law enforcement use of force in the United States.

The FBI says that the goal of the collection is not to provide insight into specific use-of-force incidents, but instead to offer a comprehensive view of the circumstances, subjects, and officers involved in such incidents nationwide.

"Law enforcement officers across the country face complex and dangerous policing environments that may result in the use of force," the FBI said in a statement. "To date, there has been no mechanism for collecting nationwide statistics related to use-of-force incidents. While some law enforcement agencies and states have proactively developed their own use-of-force data collections for use at both the local and state level, there has yet to be a consistent, aggregated view of such data from a national perspective."

The FBI is now asking law enforcement agencies to contribute their own data to the National Use-of-Force Collection via a web application in the FBI’s Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP), which allows agencies to report incidents electronically, either individually or by bulk submission.

As with all UCR Program data collections, participation is voluntary.