Police use-of-force hotspots: Mapping and analysing police use-of-force events in San Francisco

This study examines the spatiotemporal distribution of police use-of-force (UoF) incidents reported by the San Francisco Police Department. Drawing on geocoded incident data, we analyse the concentration of UoF across space, time, and officers, and assess whether UoF hotspots correspond to areas with higher proportions of racial and ethnic minority residents. Findings reveal marked concentration: UoF incidents cluster in specific locations and time periods, and a disproportionate share of incidents involve a subset of officers. Multi-officer encounters were associated with a significantly elevated probability of suspect and officer injury. Notably, spatial analysis revealed no over-representation of UoF hotspots in predominantly minority neighbourhoods, suggesting that the geographic distribution of force is not systematically tied to the racial composition of the areas in which it occurs.