The Austin Police Department has overhauled how it tracks use-of-force incidents in response to a city-commissioned report that found its methods “rudimentary, inconsistent, and inaccurate.” The move has left some feeling it could oversimplify reporting and obscure what actually happens during altercations.

In 2025, Robin Engel, a senior research scientist at The Ohio State University, identified major issues in APD’s reporting, which she said undermined transparency and accountability. That prompted the department to implement sweeping changes to how it tracks those incidents, including eliminating its least-violent category and changing the reporting focus from cataloging individual police actions to documenting the number of people affected. Engel said the department’s previous approach led to overreporting, but criminal justice advocates worry the shift from tracking specific police actions to the number of people affected could reduce accountability.

The new approach “undercounts the actual volume of force used, masks how many officers are involved and makes it harder to identify patterns of escalation,” said Savannah Lee with Equity Action. “If we’re serious about accountability, we need data that tells the truth. Right now, this approach falls short of that standard.”

A data overhaul meant to fix accuracy issues

The city enacted a host of changes in response to the assessment, including streamlining police department policies, requiring new de-escalation training and adjusting how the department tracks and reports incidents.

Police eliminated a category of use-of-force known as “level four” incidents. Engel said this category could involve an officer using an “empty hand control technique that does not result in an injury.”

Previously, about 39% of all APD use-of-force incidents fell under the level-four category, though in many other U.S. law enforcement agencies, they don’t rise to the level of use-of-force. She said that while the category has been eliminated, these actions will still be captured and reported to an officer’s supervisor.

“It’s not that we’re not counting or measuring these things. We are,” Engel said. “It’s just measured differently. This is mandatory reporting, and it’s reviewed by the first-line supervisor immediately.”

Another notable change shifts reporting from tracking each use-of-force action, such as a hand strike, takedown or taser, to counting the number of subjects who had force used against them.

“That’s not to say that the other information isn’t collected or isn’t valuable,” Engel said, “but when we’re analyzing it, talking about it and looking at it for training and policy reasons, it’s best practice to look at it by subjects.”

Peter Hunt with the Austin Justice Coalition said the changes could make reporting easier for police, but may risk some incidents slipping through the cracks.

“It’s in the phrase ‘use-of-force’: We care about the force that is being used,” Hunt said. “I think [this new approach] focuses on really the wrong sort of thing.”

Hunt said he thinks the mid- to long-term consequences could lead to the “data becoming fuzzier in a really negative way.”

“It’s not enough to just say, ‘Oh, a thing happened to a person.’ We need to say what things are happening,” he said. “We need to say how many times they’re happening.”

Engel explained to Austin City Council members Tuesday she does not believe this new approach will erase details about a use-of-force incident, but it will better explain how often APD officers are exercising force.

“It does not mean that we don’t capture the force action or the number of officers that use force. It also does not mean that we don’t look at that data specifically. We do,” she said. “We use that data to answer different questions.”

What the data shows about who police use force against

In her presentation at City Council’s work session, Engel broke down data on who officers are using force against and trends within the department.

In the assessment, Engel found that about 40% of use-of-force incidents involved Hispanic people, about 31% involved Black people and about 28% involved white people. She said while there are differences in percentages, they do not necessarily indicate bias.

“After controlling for other factors, Black and Hispanic arrestees had equal likelihood as whites of having force used against them,” she wrote in her presentation.

When looking at use-of-force trends, researchers found incidents were up 9% from 2022 to 2025, but down slightly, about 1%, from 2024 to 2025. Engel also pointed to APD arrest data, which showed arrests increased by about 25% over that same period.

“Use of force proportionally is not increasing. In fact, it’s decreasing,” Engel said.

Council Member Mike Siegel asked APD why arrests were increasing.

“Officers are getting back to work. There’s more proactivity with officers,” Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis replied.

Gaps remain in how people are categorized

Council Member Krista Laine recommended APD be more comprehensive when recording information about people who have had force used against them.

She asked the department to better capture race, noting reports currently classify people who are not Black, Hispanic or white as “other,” which can obscure groups such as Asian residents. She also asked whether officers could record someone’s religion to help identify potential religious bias.