Police in Arlington used force 212 more times in 2024 than the year before, with more than half of force application occurrences being against Black men and women, according to an annual report.
In total, officers used force on 1,776 people, including five fatal shootings and one non-fatal shooting, the report shows. Police also applied force against six animals.
The number of times police used force decreased between those years for white men, Asian men and Asian women, according to the report. All other racial and gender demographics saw police force used more times than in 2023.
The vast majority of people on whom police used force were Arlington residents, and most were in the city’s North District.
Arlington police policy limits when officers can apply force and which type is permissible.
“Preserving the sanctity of life and human rights is at the forefront of the standard and is reflected in our policy,” Arlington Police Chief Al Jones told the city council March 25 while presenting the annual update.
Force use, race and gender
Arlington’s population is majority-white at around 40%, according to 2024 estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. Black residents make up just over 22% of the population. Hispanic residents represent about 31% and Asian residents 7% of the Arlington community.
But police data shows that more than half of the people on whom police used force were Black.
Jones told the city council Black suspects resisted police more frequently than suspects of other races. His presentation to the city council showed that 42% of instances where officers used force were in response to active resistance from a suspect.
In that category, as in every other, police recorded resistance from suspects who were Black more than of any other race.
More than 300 suspects who were Black were categorized as actively resisting police. It was more than double the number of times Arlington police reported a white suspect was actively resisting, the second highest racial demographic group with just fewer than 150 instances represented in the data.
In total, Black suspects made up 53.6% of people who faced police use of force, with increases from 2023 to 2024 of 12.6% for Black men and 10.5% for Black women.
Jones pointed to those statistics on resistance as the reason suspects who are Black faced police use of force more frequently than other races. He did not say how the level of resistance from suspects was determined or if any possible racial biases were considered when determining the level of force.
“The most frequent level of resistance in 2024 by race was from Blacks, followed by whites, closely followed by Hispanics. And in response to this instance of force application in 2024 were more frequently applied to Blacks, followed by Hispanics, followed by whites.”
Jones said more positive communication with residents could help.
“This analysis further illustrates the need for continued dialogue with our community,” Jones told the council. “We have to try to get our community to comply with us so we can actually bring those force numbers down.”
The largest percent increase in use of force was against Hispanic women, with officers applying force to 47.8% more Hispanic women in 2024 than 2023. Rebecca Boxall, the councilmember representing District 5, asked Jones to explain that increase.
Jones said the increase in women who face police use of force is in large part due to an increase in domestic disturbance and domestic violence calls. He said that increase has led to more interaction with women who resist police, including resisting arrest.
"Just because you're a woman doesn't mean you can't be violent," Jones said. "They're not submissive, right? When we're saying, 'Hey, I need you to put your hands behind your back or we're going to take you to jail,' they'll fight. They're not sitting there saying, 'OK, I'll go to jail.' They're fighting the officers. There's no doubt about that."
Incidents vs. occurrences
Police reported officers used force against 1,776 people and six animals but lists the number of instances at 1,235.
That’s in part because the number of times a single suspect is subjected to police force application can impact data, UT Arlington criminology professor Jaya Davis said.
Davis and other professors and researchers at the university partnered with Arlington police to analyze use of force data last year. She told the council her team has finished analyzing 2023 data and will be looking at 2024 next.
But some of the information from 2023 can still be used for at least preliminary examination of the data in the report.
Rules for Use of Force
Arlington police policy outlines rules for use of force including what force is appropriate for specific contexts.
Non-active resistance
Includes verbal non-compliance, psychological intimidation and passive resistance, like tensing muscles to make it hard for police to put handcuffs on. Police can use verbal commands and passive physical guidance, like a hand on the shoulder or maneuvering an uncooperative suspect into a police vehicle.
Active resistance
Acts like trying to run from police, prevent police from making an arrest or using feet and legs to prevent police from putting a suspect in a vehicle. Police use the previous techniques, plus empty hand control and chemical sprays like pepper spray.
Assault
When a suspect tries to physically harm officers without a deadly weapon. Police can use all previous techniques and equipment, plus less-lethal options like Tasers, bean bag guns, rubber bullets and other impact weapons, based on what is needed.
Deadly force
When a suspect attempts to use a deadly weapon to harm or kill officers. Police can use any of the tools and techniques above in addition to using deadly force.
Source: Arlington Police Department
Davis said the number of times officers use force in an incident can impact what might be found in the report. For instance, officers responding to a critical incident like an active shooter may go into a building with guns drawn around bystanders.
Having a weapon unholstered is technically a separate use of force occurrence for each officer who had a weapon drawn, Davis said. In that case, the active shooter call would be an incident that saw police use of force, but it doesn’t only count as one use of force.
She said applying that to use of force statistics based on racial demographics can lend extra insight.
She said there is a racial component to use of force that need to be examined and it’s important to dig deeper into the data to accomplish that. Looking at the type of force used and the number of times it was applied by police can offer deeper answers.
Looking at data from 2023, Davis said police used force against white and Hispanic men an average of 2.5 times per incident, three times per incident with Asian men and 2.4 times per incident with Black men.
The numbers are about the same with women, ranging from twice per incident with Hispanic women to 2.3 times for Asian women.
“This really shows us that among the use of force incidents, there’s very little variation in use of force occurrences by race,” Davis said. “So, while we do see a variability of incidents by race, within the individual incident subject race does not appear to dictate how use of force is handled within that incident.”
UT Arlington findings
Davis said analysis of the 2023 data and 100 randomly selected use of force instances from the same year showed police used force levels appropriate for how suspects were resisting. She said many officers reduce their level of force during an encounter as the situation deescalated.
She also said the review process Arlington police have for use of force incidents and occurrences is being used the right way.
"The process is not perfunctory measure where we just see boilerplate or stamped approvals but undertaken with the expectation for which it was designed: to ensure force is only used when justified," Davis said.
She added that a review by police trainers adds opportunities for officers to learn what went right or wrong in unique incidents where force was used.
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