Ohio Statistical Analysis Center

The State Justice Statistics (SJS) Program is designed to maintain and enhance each state's capacity to address criminal justice issues through collection and analysis of data. The SJS Program provides support to each state to coordinate and conduct statistical activities within the state, conduct research to estimate impacts of legislative and policy changes, and serve as a liaison in assisting BJS to gather data from respondent agencies within their states.

The Ohio Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) is placed within the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS). Although housed within the Ohio Department of Public Safety, OCJS is by constitution and statute separate from enforcement, courts, and corrections, providing a neutral criminal justice branch within state government.

Under the 2019 SJS program, the SAC will conduct a study looking at use of force data both at the aggregate and agency level. There are two parts to this project. One is an analysis of use of force data reported to Ohio Incident-Based Reporting System (OIBRS). SAC staff will analyze three different components of use of force data: incidents, offenders, and officers. This broad analysis of descriptive data will provide important insights about law enforcement use of force in Ohio, as there is currently no comprehensive source of information on this topic. The second part of this project focuses on data quality. The data will be assessed on six data quality dimensions: completeness, uniqueness, timeliness, validity, accuracy, and consistency. Quantitative data from OIBRS, as well as data from law enforcement use of force reports (including narratives) will be compared across the dimensions.

(CA/NCF)