INDIANAPOLIS -- What does an IMPD officer's use-of-force incident look like?
To answer that question, RTV6 dug into a year's worth of use-of-force data from August 2015-2016 that IMPD provided to Project Comport, an open data tool for law enforcement agencies.
Over that period, the data shows an average use-of-force incident looks like this:
The suspect is a male (83 percent), median age 27. He's reported as either resisting arrest or non-compliant with officers. He has about an even chance of being black (46 percent) or white (44 percent). He'll eventually be charged with misdemeanor resisting law enforcement (28 percent), disorderly conduct (6 percent) or public intoxication (6 percent).
The officer is a white male (77 percent), median age 36, with 10 years of service on the force. He's assigned to the East (20 percent), Southwest (15 percent) or Southeast (14 percent) district. There's around a 10 percent chance he's a member of the canine section.
More than half the time (56 percent), the incident resolves without injury to either the suspect or officer. When there are injuries reported, the most common are minor scrapes & bruises (18 percent), complaints of pain (7.5 percent) and canine bite (7.2 percent). Officers rarely report any injuries – 90 percent of the time none are reported.
Above: Use-of-force incidents with "no injuries" included. Below: Only use-of-force incidents where injuries were reported.
The most commonly used type of force is the Taser (23 percent), followed by physical takedowns (17 percent) and handcuffing (9 percent). Canines are used in force incidents about 7 percent of the time.
This is the second in a series of deep dives looking at force used by and against Indianapolis police officers. Read about what weapons IMPD officers most often face in the first installment.
