"Allegations of police abuse arerife in cities throughout the country and take many forms."Whether measured by use-of-force reports, citizen complaints, victim surveys, orobservational methods, the data consistently indicate that only a small percentage ofpolice-public interactions involve the use of force. Expanding and contractingdefinitions of "police-public" interactions also work to affect use-of-force rates but in anopposite way from definitions of force. Broad definitions of police-public "interactions,"such as calls for service, which capture variegated requests for assistance, lead to lowrates of use of force. Conversely, narrow definitions of police-public interactions, suchas arrests, which concentrate squarely on suspects, lead to higher rates ...
