A. SUMMARY To confirm the completeness of this dataset please contact the Sheriff's Office at sheriff.tech.services@sfgov.org

The dataset provides summary information on individuals booked into the San Francisco City and County Jail since 2012, categorized by race. The table provides a breakdown of the total number of bookings by month and race. The unit of measure is the jail booking number. The data is collected by the Sheriff's Office and includes self-report and assigned data. However, some race categories with small sample sizes are grouped together to reduce the risk of re-identification and protect the privacy of individuals booked into jail.

The booking process refers to the procedure that occurs after an individual has been arrested and is taken into custody. The process begins with the arrest of an individual by law enforcement officers. The arrest can take place on the scene or at a later time if a warrant is issued. Once the individual has been arrested, and statutory law requires incarceration, they would be transported to the jail for booking. The arresting officer will record the reason for the arrest, along with any other relevant information. The sheriff’s deputies will then book the individual into jail, which involves taking their fingerprints, photograph, and recording personal information. The jail will assign a booking number, which is used to identify the individual throughout their time in custody. Once the booking process is complete, the individual will be incarcerated and will remain in custody until they are released per court order.

Disclaimer: The San Francisco Sheriff's Office does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the information as the data is subject to change as modifications and updates are completed.

B. HOW THE DATASET IS CREATED When an arrest is presented to the Sheriff’s Office, relevant data is manually entered into the Sheriff Office's jail management system. Data reports are pulled from this system on a semi-regular basis, and added to Open Data.

C. UPDATE PROCESS This dataset is scheduled to update monthly

D. HOW TO USE THIS DATASET This data can be used to identify trends and patterns in the jail population over time. The date in this dataset is based on the date the suspect was booked into county jail for the arresting incident. The unit of measurement for this dataset is the booking number. A jail booking number is a unique identifier assigned to each individual who is booked into a jail facility. It is used to track the individual throughout their time in custody and to link their records to other relevant information, such as court appearances and medical records.

Note that this dataset should be used with the Jail Bookings by Ethnicity dataset for an accurate characterization of the Hispanic or Latin populations.

E. RELATED DATASETS • Bookings by Age • Bookings by Male/Female • Bookings by Ethnicity