Law enforcement and policymakers across Washington state now have a more robust tool to objectively analyze the reportable use of force by police, compare outcomes with similar agencies, and build trust with the communities they serve.
Developed and managed by Washington State University for the Office of the Attorney General, the Washington State Data Exchange for Public Safety (WADEPS) centralizes and standardizes data received from hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the state and provides contextual analysis through a set of seven new enhanced public dashboards.
Knowing more about when, where, and the circumstances in which police officers apply force is a powerful tool to improve trust and positive outcomes for public safety in Washington state. Both law enforcement agencies and the public will be able to identify trends and patterns in policing interactions and make evidence-based decisions that drive meaningful community outcomes.
WADEPS is an activity-based system which pairs the number of incidents resulting in reportable force with the overall number of calls for service to provide a rate of force for individual agencies, for counties, and for the state as a whole. This unique pairing provides more meaningful context than traditional population-based rates.
“WADEPS can track the majority of police contacts with the public and calculate what percentage of those contacts result in a reportable use of force. Understanding the frequency and nature of incidents resulting in the use of force versus the number that did not will provide useful, actionable data for agency leaders, community members, and policymakers at all levels,” said Professor David Makin, WADEPS principal investigator and a WSU criminal justice researcher with extensive experience in police operations, public policy, and data analytics.
For example, visitors to the dashboards can examine police rates of force across different types of calls for service, such as police response to an assault or a mental health call, review how the number of officers has changed over the last decade, and compare agency-provided data with state averages.
Standardizing hundreds of data points
WADEPS was established by the state legislature with robust bipartisan support and developed through collaboration with stakeholders from law enforcement, community organizations, and industry research. Funded by a five-year legislative grant through the Office of the Attorney General, WADEPS is a long-term, statewide investment to increase transparency and build trust.
Although all law enforcement agencies collect data about the use of force by their officers, there are many variations in methods and definitions, and not all of the data is readily accessible to the public. With the WADEPS dashboards, the information is standardized so it can be accurately compared and is available to everyone.
“WADEPS is a data custodian: we mirror and collate data held by individual agencies and provide a layer of privacy protection for the subjects and officers involved. We offer new and interesting ways to look at, and learn from, the combined data from agencies of different sizes and areas of service, and encompassing more than 10,000 officers,” said Makin.
State law specifies 10 types of force are reportable to WADEPS. They include when an officer points or discharges a conventional firearm, deploys a Taser, pepper spray, or less-lethal munitions, deploys a canine, uses a chokehold, or strikes with a weapon, their body, or a vehicle. Additionally, agencies must share data on any other type of force that results in an injury.
An advisory group convened by the Office of the Attorney General established the specific data points about each reportable use-of-force incident to be shared with WADEPS, including demographic information about the officer and the person involved, and administrative review outcomes. WADEPS began receiving standardized data from law enforcement agencies in September 2025.
Over time, as more data is provided, the dashboards will be able to help the public and policymakers better understand the trends and contributing factors involved in police use-of-force incidents.
“WADEPS serves as a national model for how public safety data exchanges can provide the statistical transparency needed for informed decision-making and population-level research,” said Makin.
On Thursday, the Attorney General’s Office’s held a forum in Everett titled “Data, Transparency, and Police Use of Force.” The event featured a presentation on the Washington State Data Exchange for Public Safety (WADEPS) and a panel discussion with community members and local law enforcement leaders.
