New use of force statistics (published 20 November) 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 2025, there were 812,449 recorded incidents in which a police officer used force on an individual in England and Wales, which includes nearly 16,000 incidents involving BTP officers. There were 65,053 more incidents (+9%) than the previous year, when there were 747,396. 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 2024 (when 36 forces did so).
Statisticians claim that the 5% increase in arrests from stop-searches was 'likely to have contributed to the increase in recorded use of force'.
By tactic
1,145,474 use of force tactics were recorded from the 812,449 use of force reports in 2024/25, an increase of 7.8% (+82,841) on the previous year.
Increases in the most common tactics used drove overall increases:
- restraint +8.5% (+56,494);
- unarmed skills +7.3% (+18,776); and
- other tactics +10.9% (+6,867)
Restraint was the most common tactic type (719,361 tactics, 63% of use of force tactics). The majority of restraint tactics involved handcuffing (80% of restraint tactics), which accounted for half (50%) of all use of force tactics, a similar proportion to the year ending 31 March 2024 (49%). 66% of handcuffing was compliant (where the individual does not resist and follows requests) and 33% was non-compliant, similar to proportions recorded in the year ending 31 March 2024 (65% and 34% respectively). Compliancy was not stated for 1% of handcuffing tactics.
Unarmed skills, the second most common tactic type, reported 274,738 times (24% of tactics; the same as the year ending 31 March 2024). 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 69,658 times (6% of tactics; the same proportion as the previous period).
By demographic
Overall, the age distribution of those experiencing police use of force remained similar to the previous period. In the year ending 31 March 2025:
- almost half (48%) of use of force reports involved people aged 18 to 34 years (386,493)
- 11% of reports (87,675) involved those aged 11 to 17
- 0.1% of reports (995) involved those aged under 11
Use of force increased amongst all ethnic groups on last year; proportions remained similar. As a result Black people were subjected to use of force roughly 3.5 times more often than white people in England and Wales.
Source: Home Office ‘Police use of force statistics, April 2024 to March 2025’, data table 4a
This disparity remains across different types of use of force, notably in deployments of CEDs (so-called 'less lethal' weapons, such as TASERs®), where it remains highest for the Black ethnic group, at roughly 4.5 times the rate of white people, and for the increasing use of police dogs (where the disparity is 3.5: 1)
The overall rate of use of force in England and Wales was 13.6 reports per 1,000 people in the year ending 31 March 2025. This rate was higher for men aged 18 to 34 years (48.9 per 1,000 people) and, of these, highest for those from a Black ethnic group (153.3 per 1,000 people). The rate was 43.1 per 1,000 people for white men in the same age bracket.
Number of people subjected to use of force equates to three quarters of all reports
This year's report includes an estimated calculation of the number of individuals who experienced police use of force (rather than simply counting the number of use of force reports or tactics used) for the first time.
Of a total 812,449 use of force reports, 315,827 (39%) were of sufficient quality to support an estimation. Within the 315,827 reports, an estimated 230,462 individuals had force used on them, suggesting that the number of people who experience force is around 73% of the number of reports recorded.
No violence detected amongst individuals in almost half of all use of force reports
For the first time the dataset was also able to reveal the type of violence involved in incidents where force was used.
From 343,633 of available reports (42% of the total), 11% described reported violence, 17% threatened violence, 25% actual violence and 47% no violence.