The following overview refers to the dataset posted here: https://data.sfgov.org/d/wg3w-h783

Summary

This dataset includes incident reports that have been filed as of January 1, 2018. These reports are filed by officers or self-reported by members of the public using SFPD’s online reporting system.  The reports are categorized into the following groups based on how the report was received and the type of incident:

1. Initial Reports: the first report filed for an incident
2. Coplogic Reports: incident reports filed by members of the public using SFPD’s online reporting system
3. Vehicle Reports: any incident reports related to stolen and/or recovered vehicles

All incident reports must be approved by a supervising Sergeant or Lieutenant. Once a supervising officer has provided approval via electronic signature, no further changes can be made to the initial report. If changes or additional information is required, a supplemental report will be generated to provide updates.  For example, a supplemental report may be issued to show an arrest was made, a missing person was found, or to provide additional details of the property taken in a theft.  To differentiate between the initial and supplemental reports, a filter can be applied to the “Report Type Description” field.

Incident reports may be removed from the dataset if in compliance with court orders to seal records or for administrative purposes such as active internal affairs investigations and/or criminal investigations.

Incident reports do not necessarily capture all data surrounding policing and crime. This dataset does not, for example, capture citations (unless an associated incident report was written with the citation.) For example, a routine speeding ticket would generally not require an incident report, however, a speeding ticket that reveals a driver with a felony warrant leading to an arrest would require an incident report.

Multiple Incident Codes

Reported incidents can have one or more associated Incident Codes. For example, an officer may have a warrant for an arrest and while making the arrest, discovers narcotics in the individual’s possession. The officer would record two Incident Codes: (1) for the warrant and (2) for the discovery of narcotics.

When multiple Incident Codes exist, the Incident ID, Incident Number, and CAD Numbers remain the same and the Row ID field can be used as a unique identifier for each row of data.  An example is provided below.

Mapping Coordinates

Coordinates provided within the dataset are anonymized and reflect the nearest intersection of each occurrence.    Some coordinates may be omitted for the following reasons:

1. Invalid addresses - addresses submitted by officers pass through validation, however, the online submission does not validate addresses on entry. While best efforts are made to match those to valid addresses when loading to the Crime Data Warehouse, there are still technical limitations to fixing all poorly formed addresses.

2. Addresses for incidents outside of SF - some cases are referred from outside SFPD districts. These will be marked as “Out of SF” in the Police District column and do not have associated geographic information.

Privacy controls

All incident locations are shown at the intersection level only. Records are masked to minimize the risk of re-identification to an individual. Intersections used in the masking are associated with either 0 or greater than 11 premise addresses. A premise address is a specific place of work or residence.

Juvenile Data

Based on Government Code (GC) 6254 and California Welfare and Institutions Code § 827, identifying juvenile information will not be available in this dataset. Incidents with a resolution of “Cite or Arrest Juvenile” and/or “Exceptional Juvenile” have been removed from this dataset. In addition, the following Incident Codes have been removed from this dataset:

Field definitions

See definitions on the dataset landing page here: https://data.sfgov.org/d/wg3w-h783