APD Use Of Force

DATASET DESCRIPTION:
The dataset is derived from reports submitted by officers for each subject against whom force was used. Because every officer involved in a use of force incident is required to complete a separate report for each subject, details about the situation and the subject’s behavior may vary across reports written by different officers. To produce subject-level data, certain fields were therefore aggregated, with values consolidated to reflect the highest reported level across all corresponding officer reports.

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GENERAL ORDERS RELATING TO THIS DATA:
Officers shall use only the force that is objectively reasonable, necessary, and proportional to the threat or resistance of a subject given the totality of the circumstances, to accomplish a lawful objective in accordance with their training, policy, and state law. Whenever safe and reasonable, non-escalation and de-escalation techniques should be employed to gain voluntary compliance by a subject.

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AUSTIN POLICE DATA DISCLAIMER:

1. The data provided is for informational use only and may differ from official Austin Police crime data.

2. APD’s databases are continuously updated, and changes can be made due to a variety of investigative factors including but not limited to offense reclassification and dates.

3. Reports run at different times may produce different results. Care should be taken when comparing against other reports as different data collection methods and different systems of record may have been used.

4. APD does not assume any liability for any decision made or action taken or not taken by the recipient in reliance upon any information or data provided.

City of Austin Open Data Terms of Use - https://data.austintexas.gov/stories/s/ranj-cccq

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APD Data Dictionary - https://data.austintexas.gov/Public-Safety/APD-Data-Dictionary/6w8q-suwv/about_data
Organization: City of Austin
Organization URL: https://catalog.data.gov/organization/austin-tx
Last updated: 2026-04-10
Tags: apd, austin police, use of force