Use of Force - Incident Information

There are certainly a lot of "buzz-words" surrounding Use of Force Reporting. Many states have implemented mandatory data collection starting in 2023. If you are a Pennsylvania agency, your department must collect Use of Force information, per Act 180.

Where do I start?

Don't worry; you don’t have to navigate this maze alone. We’re here to help!

Each incident starts with three (3) Use of Force Qualification questions:

In this incident, did a person die due to law enforcement use of force?
In this incident, did a person sustain serious bodily injury/injuries due to law enforcement use of force?
In this incident, did an officer in your department discharge their firearm at or in the direction of a person, that otherwise did not result in death or serious bodily injury?

If you answer "NO" to these questions, good news, no additional information is required!

However, additional data elements are required if you answer "YES" to any of these questions.

What are the additional data Elements?

Now that we've discussed the basics, let’s take a look at some of the additional Incident data elements collected in Pennsylvania Use of Force Reporting:

Agency Case Number?

Used to indicate the agency’s case number for the Use-of-Force incident
Mandatory
Can only contain letters, numbers, and hyphens (-)
The maximum length supported is twenty (20) characters

Incident Date?

Used to indicate the date the Use-of-Force incident occurred.
Mandatory
Must be in MM/DD/YYYY format
Must be a valid date in or after the year 2021

Incident Time (Hours/Minutes)?

Used to indicate the hour/minutes reflecting the best estimate of when the interaction between law enforcement and the subject occurred.
Mandatory
Hour
- The value is numeric from 0 – 23
- No special characters allowed
Minutes
- The value is numeric from 0 – 59
- No special characters allowed

Location Type?

Used to indicate the type of location/premises where the Use-of-Force incident took place.
Mandatory
Only one location type can be provided
Must be a valid Location Type

Location Types

PA Removed Values

Initial Contact?

Used to indicate the reason behind the initial contact between the Law Enforcement Officer and the subject.
Mandatory
Only one initial contact type can be provided
Must be a valid Reason for Contact Type

Initial Contact Types

PA Removed Values

Total Officers Involved?

Used to indicate the total number of officers from all responding agencies who used force during the incident
Mandatory
The minimum value of 1
The maximum value of 99

Total Number of Other Agencies?

Used to indicate the total number of other responding agencies whose officer(s) used force during the incident
Mandatory
Value is a number from 0-98

Other Agencies Involved?

Used to identify all other agencies involved in the incident
Conditional
- Required if the "Total Number of Other Agencies" is greater than zero (0)
  - If "Other Agencies Involved" is provided, both the Agency ORI and Agency Case Number must be provided for each agency

Ambush Incident?

Used to indicate if the incident involved an ambush of a law enforcement official
Mandatory
Only one value can be provided for an incident
Value is YES or NO

PA Removed Values

Did the Officer Approach?

Used to indicate if the law enforcement official approached the subject
Mandatory
Only one value can be provided for an incident
Value is YES or NO

PA Removed Values

Senior Officer Present?

Used to indicate if a supervisor or senior officer (acting in a similar capacity) was present or consulted before force was used during the incident
Mandatory
Only one value can be provided for an incident
Value is YES or NO

PA Removed Values

UCR Offenses (1-3)?

If the use of force was in response to a report or observation of “unlawful or suspicious activity,” the most serious observed offense(s) committed by the subject(s) prior to (or at the time of) the incident is indicated in the offense 1, offense 2, and offense 3 fields
Conditional
- The codes used are the offense designations specified by the FBI's UCR program.
- Follow the UCR Summary Hierarchy Rule
- If less than three (3) offenses are reported, select "None" for the remaining entries

UCR Offense Types

Get it right the first time!

In-Synch RMS includes intelligent data entry screens and validation for Use of Force data elements, ensuring your personnel enters data correctly. Check out the excerpt from our training video to see it in action.