The compounding effect: how neighbourhood dynamics shape police deployment and use of force

Background: Calls for service are a major driver of police activity, yet their role in shaping the neighbourhood distribution of police use of force remains under-explored. Understanding where and why force is used requires examining how these calls cluster spatially—and how police interpret and respond to them. Methods: Using administrative data from an English police force (2018–2021), we analyse how neighbourhood characteristics—including mental health prevalence, racial composition, socioeconomic deprivation, residential instability, and crime rates—predict patterns of police deployment and use of force. We link call-for-service records with force incident data to trace the process from (a) call initiation to (b) priority grading, (c) TASER-equipped officer deployment, and (d) eventual use of force. Results: Calls for service are concentrated in disadvantaged neighbourhoods with elevated mental health need. These areas are also more likely to experience police use of force (including TASER). Yet public demand is refracted through institutional filters—such as call grading and officer deployment decisions—that concentrate how and where force is ultimately applied. Conclusions: Police use of force does not result from isolated actions, but from a sequence of decisions that compound the existing spatial clustering of public calls for service. Structural disadvantage, mental health distress and operational decision-making interact to concentrate force in already over-burdened communities. Addressing disproportionate use of force requires reform not only of police practice, but also of the upstream social conditions that generate repeated crisis response.