Columbus, Ohio – Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS) Executive Director Karhlton Moore announced today that the public can now access Ohio’s database listing incidents of use-of-force by law enforcement in Ohio.
Operated by OCJS, the online database includes reports of shots fired at or in the direction of a person, the use of any other lethal weapon or object used as a lethal weapon, the use of a less than lethal weapon or other object used as a less than lethal weapon on a person, and the use of any empty hand technique on a person.
Data can be filtered by law enforcement agency, county, initial contact circumstances, location type, subject resistance type, whether the subject was armed/believed to be armed with a weapon, any subject impairment, officer type (law enforcement or corrections), officer response/force type, and also subject and officer race/ethnicity, gender, and injury data.
Over 200 Ohio law enforcement agencies covering over 25% of the population have voluntarily reported over 5,500 use of force reports through the database since 2018. OCJS is opening the database for public access to increase transparency.
“The use-of-force data helps Ohio identify the scenarios that most often lead to use of force so that we can offer specific de-escalation training related directly to these situations,” said Moore. “The data can also be used by OCJS to direct federal grants into targeted areas to help improve community-police relations.”
The use-of-force standard was one of the first two standards developed by the Ohio Collaborative Police-Community Advisory Board in 2015. A total of 572 law enforcement agencies have been certified on use of force and recruitment and hiring, covering 85% of Ohio’s population and sworn officers.
To access the new database, please visit https://www.ocjs.ohio.gov and click on the Ohio Use of Force Data link.