Police use of force: Ending excessive use of force by law enforcement is a crucial step toward healthy, safe communities.

• Large racial disparities are evident in police use-of-force incidents in the nine-county Bay Area: the rate of use-of-force incidents involving Black and Latinx residents was higher than all other groups from 2016 to 2022.
• From 2016 to 2022, the rate of use of force incidents involving Black civilians was 34 per 100,000, compared with only eight per 100,000 overall.
• The overwhelming majority of law enforcement use-of-force incidents involve men.
• Of the nearly 650 use-of-force incidents between law enforcement and civilians in the nine-county Bay Area from 2016 to 2022, nearly 70 percent resulted in serious bodily injury to civilians and about 20 percent resulted in civilian death.
• Napa County has the highest incidence of police use-of-force per 100,000 people (20 incidents per 100,000 people), while Marin County has the lowest (about one incident per 100,000 people).

Police brutality is a longstanding issue in the US and in the Bay Area, where the Black Panther Party and Black Lives Matter movements took root to counter police violence toward the Black community. Historically, vagrancy laws gave the police license to arrest Black people with little cause. Today, law enforcement is still not held accountable for the shooting deaths of civilians, who are often unarmed and predominantly Black and brown men. Permissive use-of-force policies and the lack of standards, transparency, and robust data perpetuate the challenge. In addition, police unions have generally organized against any attempts at reform aiming for greater accountability.

• Support campaigns to decrease use-of-force and officer-involved shootings.
• Support initiatives to increase police transparency and accountability and end special privileges for police.
• Reduce or eliminate police involvement and prioritize hiring and training counselors and mental health professionals to work with students, unsheltered populations, individuals with mental health concerns, and individuals in intimate partner violence situations.
• Advocate for divestment from police and investment in communities.
• Support community-led alternatives to policing.
• Prioritize positive youth development, engagement, and prevention in improving community/police relations.
• Require local police departments to adopt truth and reconciliation practices.

• Organizations: Campaign Zero; Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice; Impact Justice; Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; ACLU Southern California; Anti Police-Terror Project; The People’s Coalition for Safety and Freedom
• Reports: Police Alternatives (Well Clinic Anti-Racism Task Force); Emerging Issues: Alternatives to Enforcement; Turning Back the Tide: Promising Efforts to Demilitarize Police Departments; Police Scorecard
• Data: Mapping Police Violence; Tracking Fatal Police Shootings