New use of force statistics (published 15 October) show that the total number of use of force reports continue to rise, with some revealing patterns of behaviour in the deployment of certain tactics.
In the year ending 31 March 2026, there were 866,471 recorded incidents in which a police officer used force on an individual in England and Wales, which includes 18,208 incidents involving BTP officers. There were 54,024 more incidents (+7%) than the previous year, when there were 812,447. Of the 44 police forces in England and Wales (including BTP), 28 (64%) submitted a higher number of use of force reports compared with the year ending 31 March 2025.
Home office statisticians claim that the 2% increase in arrests, 11% increase in stop-searches, and improved recording practices likely contributed to the increase in recorded use of force.
By demographic
Age
Overall, the age distribution of those experiencing police use of force remained similar to the previous period. In the year ending 31 March 2026:
- Almost half (45%) of use of force reports involved people aged 18 to 34 years (390,762) (an over-representation of 107%, 2.07 times their share of the population (22%)).
- 11% of reports (92,090) involved those aged 11 to 17 (an overrepresentation of 26%, 1.26 times their share of the population (8.4%).
- 0.1% of reports (977) involved those aged under 11 (including 8 reports of CED tactics).
- 39,415 children (under 18s, 11% of total) are estimated to have experienced police use of force.
Ethnicity
While use of force reports increased by 7%, this was not equally distributed across ethnic groups. In the year ending 31 March 2026:
- Black people were subjected to use of force roughly 2.9 times more often than white people in England and Wales (11% of total use of force reports, an increase of reports by 5%; +4,855 from the year ending March 2025). This racial disproportionality rate increases to 3.4 when looking at all police forces except the Metropolitan Police Service and British Transport Police (an increase from 3.3 in the year ending March 2025). Black people were subjected to use of force tactics by the Met 3.5 times more than white people. The rate increases to 3.7 times when comparing use of force tactics against Black men compared to white men aged 18-34. Black people were subjected to incidents involving police use of firearms 6.9 times more often than white people relative to their respective proportions of the population (20% of incidents involving firearms involved Black people, 59% for white people).
- 8% of use of force reports involved Asian people (+14% of reports; +8,208). Asian people were subjected to incidents involving police use of firearms 1.9 times more often than white people relative to their respective proportions of the population (13% of incidents involving firearms involved Asian people despite comprising 9.25% of the population).
- 3% were recorded as Mixed (+12%; +2,641, 1.1 times more often than white people).
- 3% recorded as ‘Other’ (+12%; +2,660, 1.3 times more often than white people.) The racial disproportionality rate increases to 1.7 times when looking at men. The rate also increases to 1.8 when looking only at the Met, an increase from 1.5 in the year ending March 2025.
- 74% as white (+6%; +35,127).
- Ethnicity was not recorded for a greater proportion of use of force reports (+8%; +533).
Source: Home Office, Police use of force statistics, April 2025 to March 2026: data tables; data table 4a
This disparity remains across different types of use of force, notably in use of force reports involving CEDs (so-called 'less lethal' weapons, such as TASERs®), where it remains highest for the Black ethnic group (15% of CED tactics, 7% of discharges), at roughly 4.3 times the rate of white people (70% of CED tactics, 8% of discharges). This rate increases to 4.5 times when looking at the Met specifically and increases to 5 times when comparing Black men and white men aged 18-34.
Factors of vulnerability
- Over a fifth (23%) if use of force involved people with mental health conditions (an increase from 22% in the year ending March 2025).
- People with a mental health condition were involved in more incidents where a CED tactic was used (25%) and discharged (34%).
- 5% of use of force incidents involved people with physical health conditions (an increase from 4%).
- Whether an individual had a mental or physical health condition was not reported for 4% of use of force tactics.
- The impact factor was recorded as alcohol for 35% of use of force reports, followed by the size, gender, or build of the person subjected to use of force (33%), drugs (32%), prior knowledge (30%), and mental health (25%) (note that multiple impact factors can be recorded for each use of force report).
- 5% of use of force reports resulted in the person subjected to the force being hospitalised, 3% detained under the Mental Health Act, and 13% resulted in no further action.
- 29,702 (3% of total) of use of force reports took place in hospitals or A&E.
- Of the total use of force reports involving a CED being discharged (2,620), 24% involved multiple firings (a 2% increase from the year ending March 2025) and 11% an extended discharge (1% increase).
- 51,401 use of force reports (6% of total) resulted in injury to the person subjected to the force, 562 of which were severe injuries.
No violence detected amongst individuals in almost half of all use of force reports
From 462,410 of available reports (53% of the total), 12% described reported violence, 20% threatened violence, 23% actual violence and 45% no violence.
Number of people subjected to use of force equates to over three quarters of all reports
Of a total 866,471 use of force reports, 458,229 (53%) were of sufficient quality to support an estimation (compared to 39%, 315,827 in the year ending March 2025). Within the 458,229 reports, an estimated 369,027 individuals had force used on them, suggesting that the number of people who experience force is around 81% of the number of reports recorded. This marks a 60.1% increase in the estimated number of individuals experiencing use of force compared to the year ending March 2025 (230,462 individuals had force used on them last year; 73% of the number of reports recorded).
By tactic
1,211,824 use of force tactics were recorded from the 866,471 use of force reports in 2025/26, an increase of 5.8% (+66,350) on the previous year.
The increase in compliant handcuffing (+10%, +39,281), restraint (+7%, +49,879), unarmed skills (+5%, +14,650), and other tactics (+5%, +3,297, e.g. use of dogs and other or improvised tactics such as vehicles or horses) drove overall increases in use of force.
Restraint was the most common tactic type (recorded in 769,381 tactics, 63% of total). The majority of restraint tactics involved handcuffing (81% of restraint tactics), which accounted for half (51%) of all use of force tactics, a similar proportion to the year ending 31 March 2025 (50%). 68% of handcuffing was compliant (where the individual does not resist and follows requests) and 32% was non-compliant, similar to proportions recorded in the year ending 31 March 2025 (66% and 33% respectively). Compliancy was not stated for 1% of handcuffing tactics.
Unarmed skills, the second most common tactic type, reported 289,288 times (24% of tactics; the same as the year ending 31 March 2025). These include escorting the individual, distraction strikes with the hands or feet, and pressure point and joint locks.
Other tactics (which can include improvised tactics and the use of dogs) were the third most common tactic type, reported 74,084 times (6% of tactics; the same proportion as the previous period).
Compared to the year ending 31 March 2025, there was an increase in firearms tactics where the firearm was aimed (+4.3%, +266) and where the firearm was fired (+200%, +8).
Police force
The force driving the most use of force reports was the Met (13% of total, 109,891 reports).
Use of force reports disaggregated by ethnicity does not mirror census data on the ethnic composition of local police force areas. For instance, Cumbria has a comparatively small Black population but the highest overall rate of use of force towards Black people (184 reports per 1,000 population).
Where use of force happens
Most use of force reports (48%) took place on the street or highway, followed by 24% in the dwelling of the person subjected to force and 12% in custody blocks.