FBI Use of Force Submission - Explained!

In our previous posts, we covered the data types and values gathered in Use of Force reporting (and even some Pennsylvania-specific fields). Let’s dive deeper into the items included in the Use of Force submission. While many reporting agencies may need to include state-specific values or additional data elements, this overview will cover the FBI standard submission.

What are data segments?

Every Incident Report contains three (3) data segments (Incident, Subject, and Officer.) Each of these segments consists of data elements.

Three (3) data elements are mandatory for all submissions:

• Data Element 1 – Action

  • Mandatory

  • Determines the action type for the report, such as “Add” or “Remove.”

• Data Element 2 – ActionTime

  • Mandatory

  • Indicates the creation date and time for the report.

• Data Element 3 – Payload Content

  • Mandatory

  • The Payload Content is reported in JSON format. It doesn’t use a “Payload” identifier but rather an “Incident” field identifier.

Data elements that allow multiple entries must have commas (“,”) separating each value and be within the beginning and ending bracket and squiggly brackets [{ <value>, <value>, <value>}].

At this point, it’s perfectly fine to be confused, but hopefully, by the end of this post, you can break down and understand an FBI Use of Force submission file.

The INCIDENT Segment

The Incident Segment is the master segment and is used to provide the incident information for the Use-of-Force Incident. Also, the Incident Segment contains the subject and officer segments.

The data elements used in the Incident Segment are:

The Subject Segment

The Subject Segment is used to provide biographic and characteristics of the subject(s) at the time of the incident.

The data elements used in the Subject Segment are:

The Officer Segment

The Officer Segment is used to provide biographic data and characteristics of the officer(s) involved at the time of the incident.

The data elements used in the Officer segment are:

Data Breakdown

Now that we’ve reviewed the data elements and the information they hold let’s look at an example file provided by the FBI.

As we can see, the JSON formatted file is very readable, but let's break it down into smaller sections/explanations.

Mandatory Elements

The three (3) mandatory data elements are found at the top of the file.

• Data Element 1 – Action

• Data Element 2 – ActionTime

• Data Element 3 – Payload Content

  • Remember, the file doesn’t use a “Payload” identifier but rather an “Incident” field identifier.

Everything found after the "Incident": { line contains the details of the Use of Force incident.

The information in the file is actually grouped nicely. The first group is "Incident" information, the second group is "Subject" information, and the third group is "Officer" information.

You may have even noticed that the sections are "divided" by the use of the previously mentioned brackets "[{ }]".

*Note: If more than one subject or officer was involved in the Use of Force Incident, the Subject and Officer sections can repeat.

Data Elements VS Values

Since JSON is a very readable format, we can easily determine the data element and corresponding value(s).

Let's look at an example:

In the "Incident" section, Data Element I1 is the "agency_ori."

The data element tag (or label) is found to the left of the colon (:), while the value is found to the right.

Multiple Values

Some of the data elements can have an array of (or multiple) values. An example would include the Subject "impairment_type_ids."

The data element tag (or label) is found to the left of the colon (:), while the value(s) are found to the right. If a data element accepts multiple values, they are found comma-separated, inside brackets.

["Value1", "Value2"] -> ["ALCOHOL", "MENTAL"]

No Values

Some data elements are "Conditional" or "Optional." This means they might not contain any values in the file. An example could include the Officer "height_pu_ids." The "height_pu_ids" field is "Conditional" and should be used to indicate the height of the officer as "PENDING" further investigation.

In the FBI example, the Height (Feet and Inches) is known. Therefore the "height_feet" and "height_inch" data elements contain values, while the "height_pu_ids" doesn't contain data.

Note: Depending on the data element type, unfilled values could be "" (Blank), "null," or contain empty brackets "[ ]."

Hopefully, this blog has been able to shed some light on the FBI Use of Force Submission Standards and will allow you to understand the information you are submitting!