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Committee approves $125,000 for interactive LAPD use‑of‑force dashboard
Summary
The committee approved $125,000 from the Innovation Fund for an LAPD interactive use‑of‑force dashboard to replace an annual PDF report with searchable, geospatial and layered data.
The committee approved a $125,000 Innovation Fund appropriation on April 21 to build an interactive Los Angeles Police Department use‑of‑force dashboard intended to replace the annual static report with searchable, geospatial and layered data.
The department presented the dashboard as a public‑facing tool that will let users query use‑of‑force incidents by parameters such as date/time, neighborhood, officer tenure, type of force and demographic information, and to view overlays of crime statistics and pedestrian stops. Captain Matthew Plagg, commanding officer of the LAPD’s Force Incident Review Division, said the dashboard would allow “the public to query on their own” and combine use‑of‑force data with other datasets to provide context.
Why it matters: LAPD has published an annual use‑of‑force report since 2015 in PDF form. The proposed interactive dashboard aims to reduce staff labor for annual production, speed public access to data and allow users to assemble custom queries and geographic overlays.
Capt. Plagg said the department currently assigns several officers to produce the annual report — work that consumes significant staff time — and estimated the annual officer labor cost at about $125,000. The $125,000 Innovation Fund pilot will purchase a vendor solution and cover an initial contractual services payment. Plagg said the pilot product is intended to be self‑maintained by LAPD after year one, reducing future labor costs.
Committee members asked how the dashboard would integrate with city GIS systems and various departmental databases (RMS, Teams2, Access). Plagg said the vendor chosen has experience pulling multiple agency databases into dashboards used by other police departments, and the product is intended to integrate with city GIS mapping.
Councilmember Bob Blumenfield asked why LAPD could not build the tool using internal resources; Plagg and staff said in‑house IT capacity is strained and the vendor expertise and dedicated work time were necessary for an initial implementation. The CAO’s additional recommendation establishes and appropriates the account and requires the LAPD to separately track encumbrances and report lessons learned to the Innovation and Performance Commission.
The committee approved the recommendation by roll call; Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez and Councilmember Blumenfield voted aye and the motion carried.
