San Diego County, 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: 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: In the policy materials provided by San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, “force” is not comprehensively defined. In Addendum F Section, Use of Force Guidelines, at p.536 of the policy PDF shared with us, a partial definition of “force” is provided, as follows:
“Force includes the pointing of any firearm or weapon designed to fire a projectile and any incident involving the actual or attempted detention of a subject at gunpoint (defined as holding the barrel of a weapon on target).” (Addendum F, p.2, at PDF p.536)
Also according to the policy manual, an officer is required to record any use of force in the following circumstances (Addendum F, p.3, at PDF p.537):
All deputies (or other employees) using force must clearly articulate the force used in writing (See below Exceptions). All deputies who witness force resulting in serious injury must document their observations in writing. All uses of force will be documented in the narrative of an arrest report, crime report, or deputy’s report by the primary reporting deputy in NetRMS. The force used by each deputy, and force that results in serious injury, which is observed by a deputy or other employee, will be documented in a deputy’s report, to be attached to the primary report (See below Exceptions). The names of all employee witnesses shall be listed in the primary deputy’s report. If in doubt as to the necessity or type of report required, seek direction from a supervisor.
Additionally, one Use of Force Supplemental form (SO-120) will be completed by each deputy who uses force on a subject and will describe only that force used by the reporting deputy (See below Exceptions). During incidents where force is used on multiple subjects, a separate SO-120 form will be completed for each subject.
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Exceptions
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If the only force used by a deputy, or multiple deputies, was the pointing of a weapon
(firearm, less lethal, CED), only the primary deputy will document the use of force in the
appropriate report narrative and on a SO-120 Use of Force Supplemental form.
At s.4.25, Division of Inspectional Services, at PDF pp.263-64), “serious injury” is defined as follows:
Note: Serious injury is defined as an impairment of physical condition, including but not limited to, loss of consciousness, bone fracture, protracted loss or impairment of function of any bodily member or organ, a wound requiring extensive suturing and serious disfigurement. (Revised 01-16-19)
At s.8.1, “Use of firearms/Deadly force” (PDF p.498), “serious injury” is defined as “grave harm or injury which causes or gives rise to the apprehension of danger to life, health, or limb.”
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.
