SFPD Incident Report: 2018 to Present
Revised: 03/2023
The San Francisco Police Department’s (SFPD) Incident Report Datatset is one of the most used datasets on DataSF. The dataset compiles data from the department’s Crime Data Warehouse (CDW) to provide information on incident reports filed by the SFPD in CDW, or filed by the public with the SFPD.
The incident report dataset is good at providing counts of incident reports, by type, date, time and location. This information can be used to help understand the number, location, and nature, of incidents of crime that are reported to or reported by the SFPD. Geographic information is anonymized and provided to help understand incident reports across neighborhoods, police districts and supervisorial districts. Provision of date information allows for analysis of data trends over time.
No. While incident reports may serve as the basis for official crime statistics, official crime statistics are governed by the FBI’s UCR and NIBRS program. The most recent official UCR/NIBRS statistical release from the SFPD can be found via the California Department of Justice’s Open Justice portal.
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 types based on how the report was received and the type of incident:
- 1.Initial Reports: the first report filed for an incident
- 2.Supplemental Reports: a follow up report to an initial, Coplogic or vehicle report.
- 3.Coplogic Reports: incident reports filed by members of the public using SFPD’s online reporting system
- 4.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 or discovered during an investigation, a supplemental report may be generated to capture 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 property taken in a theft. To differentiate between the initial and supplemental reports, a filter can be applied to the “Report Type Description” field. Failing to filter between the initial and supplemental report can lead to double counting of incidents.
The department uses a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) feed to share incident data with DataSF daily.
Incident reports 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.
Incident Datetime | Row ID | Incident ID | Incident Number | CAD Number | Incident Code | Incident Category |
1/1/18 13:20 | 61902222223 | 60044 | 180999999 | 180222222 | 62050 | Warrant |
1/1/18 13:20 | 61903333320 | 60044 | 180999999 | 180222222 | 16710 | Drug Offense |
Incident reports do not necessarily capture all data surrounding policing and crime. This dataset does not 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.
This dataset does not include any identifiable information of any person (suspect, victim, reporting party, officer, witness, etc). This dataset may not capture other law enforcement agency incidents within San Francisco (BART PD, US Park Police, for example), or reports not filed with the SFPD.
The release of this data must balance the need for disclosure to the public against the risk of violating the privacy of those individuals present within the dataset. As such, the dataset is subject to several privacy controls to ensure anonymity for all persons within the data.
In summary:
- 1.All incident locations are shown at the intersection level only.
- 2.Records involving juveniles have been withheld from this dataset.
- 3.All records coded as confidential have been withheld from this dataset.
Incident reports may be removed from the dataset in compliance with court orders to seal records or for administrative purposes such as active internal affairs investigations and/or criminal investigations. The data shared does not include personally identifiable information on any person within the dataset (suspect, victim, reporting party, officer, witness, etc).
Coordinates associated with incident locations provided within the dataset are anonymized and reflect the nearest intersection of each occurrence. 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. Some coordinates may be omitted for the following reasons:
- 1.Invalid addresses - addresses submitted by officer’s 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.
Per California Government Code (GC) § 6254 and California Welfare and Institutions Code § 827, incidents identifying juvenile information will not be available in this dataset. All incidents with a resolution of “Cite or Arrest Juvenile” and/or “Exceptional Juvenile” have been removed from this dataset. In addition, the following juvenile related Incident Codes have been removed from this dataset:
Incident Code | Incident Code Description |
02010 | Unlawful Sexual Intercourse with Minor |
04147 | Sexual Assault, Aggravated, of Child |
13073 | Minor, Abduction of for Prostitution |
14010 | Children, Annoy Or Molest |
14015 | Child Abuse, Sexual |
14016 | Sex Act, Agreement of Parent to Pay Minor Victim of |
14017 | Obscene Matter, Distribution to Minors |
14044 | Indecent Exposure (Juvenile victim) |
14050 | Oral Copulation, Unlawful (Juvenile Victim) |
14070 | Sodomy (Juvenile Victim) |
15010 | Child Under 14, Willful Abandonment or Nonsupport of |
15015 | Child, Inflicting Physical Pain, Mental Suffering, or Death |
15016 | Child Abuse, Exploitation |
15017 | Child Abuse, Pornography |
15020 | Persuading Child Under14 to Go Somewhere for Sex Act |
15021 | Kidnapping (Juvenile Victim) |
15022 | Kidnapping, Attempted (Juvenile Victim) |
15030 | Minor, Contributing To Delinquency of |
15031 | Tobacco Products, Selling or Furnishing to Minor |
15032 | Minor Purchasing or Receiving Tobacco Product |
15040 | Spouse, Cohabitee, Parent of Child in Common, Inflict Injury |
15041 | Elder Adult or Dependent Abuse (not Embezzlement or Theft) |
15050 | Child, Willful Desertion of |
15051 | Children, Abandonment & Neglect of (general) |
15052 | Child, Inflicting Injury Resulting in Traumatic Condition |
15054 | Harassing Child or Ward because of Person's Employment |
15060 | Child, Failure To Provide |
15070 | Parent, Indigent, Failure To Provide for |
15080 | Wife, Failure To Provide For |
15090 | Child, Drunk Habitually In Presence Of/Immoral Acts Before |
15100 | Child, Willful Cruelty To |
15500 | Juvenile Involved (secondary code) |
16070 | Marijuana, Encouraging Minor To Use |
16140 | Heroin, Encouraging Minor To Use |
16250 | Opiates, Encouraging Minor To Use |
16350 | Opium Derivative, Encouraging Minor To Use |
16450 | Hallucinogenic, Encouraging Minor To Use |
16618 | Opium, Encouraging Minor To Use |
16628 | Cocaine, Encouraging Minor To Use |
16638 | Methadone, Encouraging Minor To Use |
16648 | Amphetamine, Encouraging Minor To Use |
16658 | Methamphetamine, Encouraging Minor To Use |
16668 | Controlled Substance, Encouraging Minor To Use |
17010 | Minor, False Evidence Of Age |
17040 | Minor Inside On-sale Licensed Premise |
17050 | Alcohol, Purchasing by Minor |
17060 | Alcohol, Possession Of By Minor |
17080 | Alcohol, Sale Of To Minor |
17090 | Alcohol, Sale Of To Minor In Bar |
17100 | Alcohol, Sale Of By Minor |
26070 | Child Concealment, Depriving Lawful Custodian |
27180 | Glue, Restricted, Selling to Juvenile |
28091 | Malicious Mischief, Juvenile Suspect |
29010 | Minor Beyond Parental Control |
29020 | Curfew Violation |
29030 | Juvenile in Danger Of Leading Immoral Life |
29040 | Minor, Destitute |
29050 | Escapee, Juvenile |
29060 | Glue Sniffing, Juvenile |
29070 | Habitual Truant |
29080 | Juvenile, Intoxicated |
29081 | Minor, Allowing to Drive Intoxicated or after 23103 VC Conviction |
29082 | Tattooing Person under 18 |
29083 | Soliciting Minor to Commit Felony |
29090 | Parole Violation, Juvenile |
29100 | Runaway |
29110 | Minor Without Proper Parental Care |
29120 | Shelter |
29130 | Youth Court |
29170 | Truant, Habitual |
64050 | Child, Suspicious Act Towards |
74010 | Missing Juvenile |
The removal of juvenile related data in 2020 resulted in the retention of 3,581 records, or about 2.82% of the unredacted 2020 dataset.
Crime Category Description | Juvenile related Incident Reports |
Unknown | 494 |
Aggravated Assault | 1521 |
Other Assaults | 46 |
Vice, Prostitution | 1 |
Sex Offenses (Not Rape and Prostitution) | 159 |
Narcotics | 2 |
Offenses Against Family and Child | 1169 |
Malicious Mischief | 12 |
Liquor Laws | 7 |
Juvenile Offenses | 111 |
Other Miscellaneous | 59 |
Total | 3581 |
Juvenile Records Retained, by Crime Category - 2020
The SFPD routinely codifies certain incident reports as confidential for various reasons. These reasons include at the request of the reporting party, due to the sensitivity of the investigation, or at the request of the investigator or chain of command.
In 2020, 7,414 confidential flagged reports were retained by the department, or about 5.8% of the unredacted dataset. Of the 7,414 reports, 53% were also flagged as domestic violence reports.
Field Name | Definition | API Name |
Incident Date | The date and time when the incident occurred | incident_datetime |
Incident Date | The date the incident occurred | incident_date |
Incident Time | The time the incident occurred | incident_time |
Incident Year | The year the incident occurred, provided as a convenience for filtering | incident_year |
Incident Day of Week | The day of week the incident occurred | incident_day_of_week |
Report Datetime | Distinct from Incident Datetime, Report Datetime is when the report was filed. | report_datetime |
Row ID | A unique identifier for each row of data in the dataset | row_id |
Incident ID | This is the system generated identifier for incident reports. Incident IDs and Incident Numbers both uniquely identify reports, but Incident Numbers are used when referencing cases and report documents. | incident_id |
Incident Number | The number issued on the report, sometimes interchangeably referred to as the Case Number. This number is used to reference cases and report documents. | incident_number |
CAD Number | The Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) is the system used by the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) to dispatch officers and other public safety personnel. CAD Numbers are assigned by the DEM system and linked to relevant incident reports (Incident Number). Not all Incidents will have a CAD Number. Those filed online via Coplogic (refer to “Filed Online” field) and others not filed through the DEM system will not have CAD Numbers. | cad_number |
Report Type Code | A system code for report types, these have corresponding descriptions within the dataset. | report_type_code |
Report Type Description | The description of the report type, can be one of: · Initial · Initial Supplement · Vehicle Initial · Vehicle Supplement · Coplogic Initial · Coplogic Supplement | report_type_description |
Filed Online | Non- emergency police reports can be filed online by members of the public using SFPD’s self-service reporting system called Coplogic Values in this field will be “TRUE” if Coplogic was used to file the report. Please reference the link below for additional info: | filed_online |
Incident Code | Incident Codes are the system codes to describe a type of incident. A single incident report can have one or more incident types associated. In those cases you will see multiple rows representing a unique combination of the Incident ID and Incident Code. | incident_code |
Incident Category | A category mapped on to the Incident Code used in statistics and reporting. Mappings provided by the Crime Analysis Unit of the Police Department. | incident_category |
Incident Subcategory | A subcategory mapped to the Incident Code that is used for statistics and reporting. Mappings are provided by the Crime Analysis Unit of the Police Department. | incident_subcategory |
Incident Description | The description of the incident that corresponds with the Incident Code. These are generally self-explanatory. | incident_description |
Resolution | The resolution of the incident at the time of the report. Can be one of: · Cite or Arrest Adult · Cite or Arrest Juvenile* · Exceptional Adult · Exceptional Juvenile* · Open or Active · Unfounded Note: once a report is filed, the Resolution will not change. Status changes and/or updates must be provided using a Supplemental Report *Incidents identifying juvenile information are not included in this dataset. Please see the Juvenile Data section for more information. | resolution |
Intersection | 2 or more street names that intersect closest to the incident location, separated by a backward slash (). An incident number may have multiple locations listed due to differing locations reported in supplemental reports, i.e., an arrest location or the location of missing person found. Note, the possible intersections will only include those that satisfy the privacy controls." | intersection |
Supervisor District | Current Supervisor District: There are 11 members elected to the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco, each representing a geographic district. The Board of Supervisors is the legislative body for San Francisco. The districts are numbered 1 through 11. Please reference the link below for additional info: https://data.sfgov.org/d/cqbw-m5m3 As mentioned above, the actual location of police incidents have been partially obfuscated (anonymized) to protect the privacy of those involved. This means that the Supervisor District boundary is assigned based on the intersection closest to the incident location. This may differ slightly from the District the incident actually occurred within. | supervisor_district |
Supervisor District 2012 | Previous 2012-2022 Supervisor District: There are 11 members elected to the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco, each representing a geographic district. The Board of Supervisors is the legislative body for San Francisco. The districts are numbered 1 through 11. Please reference the link below for additional info: https://data.sfgov.org/d/keex-zmn4 As mentioned above, the actual location of police incidents have been partially obfuscated (anonymized) to protect the privacy of those involved. This means that the Supervisor District boundary is assigned based on the intersection closest to the incident location. This may differ slightly from the District the incident actually occurred within. | supervisor_district_2012 |
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