Tool to track use of force
S.F. nonprofit’s online system to report police data on instances leading to death, serious injury
While Charlotte, North Carolina, reeled from a night of violent protests over recent police shootings, officials in California turned to technology to address mounting tensions between law enforcement officers and the community.
The California Department of Justice on Thursday launched a first-of-its-kind online platform to record police uses of force that result in death or serious injury to a civilian — and report that data to the public.
It will be the first time the state has gathered this use-offorce data in a comprehensive way, and the program’s backers hope it will allow California officials to find patterns and point out problem agencies or areas with the goal of helping them
“We haven’t seen this kind of civil unrest since the 1960s.” — Robert Taylor, criminology professor, University of Texas in Dallas
craft policies to curb violence. It’s an attempt by the state to build trust between police and civilians during a time when anger over recent police shootings of African-American men is sweeping the country.
The platform was created by Bayes Impact, a San Francisco-based data science-focused nonprofit backed by local startup accelerator Y Combinator. Bayes uses technology to tackle social issues and has built data-driven applications that do everything from help veterans find civilian work to increase the chances of success for kidney transplants.
“With the escalation of the division between the police and the community perpetuating month after month, it became something that we started looking at,” said Kirtan Upadhyaya, Bayes’ director of partnerships.
Using the platform, which is called Ursus after the Latin name for the California grizzly on the state flag, officers can report uses of force via an online form — either in the field or at their desk — instead of filing physical paperwork. Through Ursus, officers also will have to report any discharge of a firearm even if no one is injured.
Under a state law passed last year, all California law enforcement agencies will be required to report uses of force resulting in death or serious injuries on the new platform, according to the attorney general’s office. Agencies have been tracking that data internally since January, but by January they will be required to upload it for the public’s review.
All data gathered is scheduled to go live on California’s publicly accessible OpenJustice portal early next year. The portal already reports fatal uses of force but early next year will also begin tracking in- cidents resulting in serious injuries.
Robert Taylor, a criminology professor at the University of Texas in Dallas who specializes in use-of-force cases, said the lack of data is a major obstacle to addressing the police shootings that are stoking unrest throughout the country.
“Part of the problem is we don’t really know how much activity there is out there with police use of force,” he said.
Experts say federal methods for reporting such incidents are lacking, which, according to Bayes, is widening the trust gap between civilians and police.
Bayes hopes other states will adopt the Ursus platform, Upadhyaya said. To make that easier, the nonprofit has published its source code on its website.
Bayes piloted the platform this summer, giving access to 12 law enforcement agencies, including the Oakland and Walnut Creek police departments, the California Highway Patrol and the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. Oakland police did not have an immediate response to questions about their experience with the portal.
Taylor applauded the Ursus effort and said the database could help officials spot officers involved in an unusual amount of violence or officers who seem to be targeting African-Americans. It’s too early to tell what changes those findings could bring about, he said, but it’s clear something needs to be done.
“We haven’t seen this kind of civil unrest since the 1960s — the tension between African-American communities and the police is probably at its highest level since that time, and it’s an indicator of how polarized we are as a national community,” Taylor said. “The question is — well, what are we going to do about it?”