SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — Have you ever heard about a police use-of-force incident in your community and wondered what happened afterward? Now you can find out. Washington State University launched WADEPS, a free website that puts use-of-force data from agencies across the state in one place.
Washington agencies already track their officers’ use of force. WADEPS gathers that information into one standardized, searchable site. The database was created by Washington State University and the Washington State Attorney General’s Office.
WADEPS began receiving standardized data from agencies in September of last year. It is funded through a state bill passed in 2022 requiring use-of-force data to be compiled into a publicly available database.
State law identifies 10 types of force that agencies must report. They include an officer pointing or firing a gun, using a Taser, or deploying pepper spray or less-lethal munitions.
Users can compare agencies, review rates of force and examine police activity.
The site calculates the rate of force by dividing the number of incidents by total police interactions. In Spokane County, the Sheriff’s Office reports 0.55 incidents per 1,000 calls, close to the state average of 0.56. The Spokane Police Department reports 0.82 incidents per 1,000 calls, a higher rate.
The site also shows what happens after an incident, including how the agency reviews it. WADEPS principal investigator David Makin said that feature stands out.
“At the end of the day, this is the public’s data. This is not WADEPS data. This is not Washington University’s data. They should, if they are so intrigued, go in and use their data.”
Makin said the dashboards already show some agencies with similar numbers of public contacts but very different numbers of reported use-of-force incidents.
Users can compare rates across call types, including assaults and mental health calls. The most common incident type resulting in force is an offense against a person, with a rate of 4.16 uses of force per 1,000 calls for service.
Not every agency must report. Agencies contracted with another agency, tribal police departments, and some others are exempt. Our of the 301 law enforcement agencies in the state, only 211 are required to provide both use-of-force and calls-for service data to WADEPS. In Spokane County, just around 61% of agencies are required to report.
You can explore the database at wadeps.org.
COPYRIGHT 2026 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
