San Diego (City), CA 2021
DATA NOTES
This section contains information on how CPE defines and categorizes the data collected from departments.
DEFINING RACIAL GROUPS AND STANDARD CATEGORIES
Defining racial groups:
Defining racial groups: CPE uses “racial group” to refer to groups described in departmental records by racial category (e.g., Hispanic or Latinx, Asian, Black, Native, White). When we compare departmental records of incidents to local demographic data, these racial groups are mapped onto Census data for the following groups: Hispanic (referred to as “Latinx” in this assessment), non-Hispanic Asian, non-Hispanic Black, non-Hispanic Native American, and non-Hispanic White. The “Other” category, if used, combines racial groups making up less than 2% of incidents.
Our use of “racial” as a shorthand for these groups does not represent a claim that any person belongs to any monolithic “race,” or indeed that the category of “race” has any objective or biological meaning, apart from its social and political context. We acknowledge the historic and deliberate use of racial categories in crime statistics to link criminality to Black people, a bias that continues to affect marginalized communities and people in the criminal justice system today. We also recognize that the terms we use to describe racial groups are not universally accepted or preferred by members of the groups they describe. We aim to use terms which are inclusive, widely understood, and unlikely to offend.
Defining use of force: According to the policy manual provided by San Diego PD, the following are considered reportable uses of force:
“1. Any force option, control hold, or weaponless defense technique applied to a person, or any force that causes injury or complaint of injury to either the officer or the subject being restrained; 2. Discharge of a firearm in an official capacity; 3. Discharge of a Taser; 4. Use of the baton, police nunchaku (OPN), or other impact weapons where the suspect has been struck; 5. Use of any type of chemical agent (mace, OC, etc.); 6. Use of a police service dog, when a bite or other injury occurs; 7. Use of any restraint device, to include a cord cuff, WRAP restraint device, safety control chair or restraint car seats, as outlined in Department Procedure 6.01; 8. When the officer overcomes physical resistance to applying the handcuffs; 9. Use of ‘specialty munitions,’ as defined in Department Procedure 1.36, Use of Specialty Munitions; and, 10. The pointing of a firearm at a person to gain compliance.” DP 1.04- Use of Force, sec. VI(B).
Standardizing categories: Each law enforcement agency collects stop, search, use of force, and racial data in its own way. In order to interpret data consistently across departments, we sort the data received from departments into standardized categories. The following tables show the categories used by the department and how we translate them into CPE categories. The “LEA-Provided Value” column contains the categories that the department provided to CPE, and the “CPE Standardized” column shows the corresponding category CPE used in this assessment.
For more information about why certain results were not displayed, a detailed list of data requirements for each analysis is available under “More information,” beneath the relevant chart.
