NORFOLK, VA – In June 2020, Norfolk City Council passed a resolution for improved police report transparency following national high-profile incidents. The following month, the City Manager addressed Council on how the City will move forward to release data with improvements in frequency, level of detail, and accessibility.
The City’s CivicLab worked with the Norfolk Police Department over the last year to create the Norfolk Police Data Hub. This hub provides the public with five years of data, refreshed every weekday, regarding police personnel, citizen complaints and use of force in an interactive, easy to read format. The hub builds on NPD’s ongoing efforts to improve transparency, community relations and policing in Norfolk.
The robust data hub provides officer and citizen demographics for the overall Norfolk population and is broken down by interactions by race. Citizen complaints, allegations and findings are also included. Arrest demographics are displayed side-by-side with population demographics. Use of force data is available by zip code as well as by demographics.
The raw data used for the data hub is available in a table embedded in the hub as well as in the city’s Open Data portal. A glossary, including links to applicable policies, is available and provides definitions of policing terms that may be unfamiliar to the public.
During the rolling five-year period spanning from July 9, 2016 through July 12, 2021, Norfolk Police received 1,246,335 calls for service. Use of force was reported in 2,071 of those calls or roughly 0.17%. Some calls resulted in multiple types of force for a total of 2,638 uses of force incidents. NPD used empty/soft control technique in 62% (1,647) of incidents. Use of force incidents resulted in arrest in 82% (1,693) of cases. Four citizen fatalities occurred, all of which involved an attack on an officer by a suspect with a weapon.
Norfolk Police Department policy requires a Use-of-Force report every time an officer must do more than routine use of handcuffs or hands to hold, guide, or lead a person.
In an ongoing effort to improve community relations, Norfolk Police has partnered with the Center for Policing Equity and will be the first city to participate in the COMPSTAT for Justice program. This multi-year program includes a rigorous review of police data and practices with recommendations to reduce racial disparities and inequities.