Contact

GlossaryReports, outcomes, and case status

Disposition

A disposition records how a call or case was handled. Its meaning depends on the record system and differs from a court outcome or UCR clearance.

A disposition is a recorded outcome or handling action for a call, report, or case. In dispatch records, it commonly explains how the response ended, such as a report being taken or the matter being referred elsewhere. Its meaning depends on the source and may not describe the final investigative or court outcome.

Start with the record's context

“Disposition” appears at several stages of the public-safety and justice process. A call disposition concerns the response. An investigative disposition concerns the agency's handling of a case. A court disposition concerns proceedings in court. The shared word does not make the underlying decisions equivalent.

For a dispatch log, the disposition can help distinguish why responders were requested from what they did. An alarm call might end with the building appearing secure. A parking complaint might end after the vehicle is moved. Those outcomes supply useful context without necessarily producing an offense report.

San Francisco's documentation explains that its disposition is supplied by the responding unit and entered into CAD. The same documentation cautions that the categories are broad and depend on the circumstances. San Francisco disposition explanation.

Example

Hypothetical example: A resident reports a damaged fence and asks for police assistance. The call type is “property damage.” After speaking with the resident, the officer records a “report” disposition and the call is closed.

The disposition tells the reader that the response resulted in a report. It does not establish who caused the damage, whether a suspect was identified, or whether charges followed. The investigation can continue after the dispatch response ends.

If a later case record says “inactive,” that is a different status in a different record. It does not contradict the earlier “report” disposition: one describes what happened during the response, and the other describes the later handling of the investigation.

Common confusion

Disposition and call type: Call type identifies the reported nature of the request. Disposition records its handling or outcome. “Alarm” and “premises appears secure” are compatible descriptions of different parts of one event.

Disposition and clearance: In the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program, clearance requires specific arrest or exceptional-clearance criteria. A local code such as “handled” or “closed” does not demonstrate those criteria were met. FBI clearance explanation.

Disposition and conviction: Neither a dispatch outcome nor a police case status is a court finding of guilt. Even a disposition indicating an arrest does not answer what happened in court.

Why outcome counts need caution

A disposition field often represents one selected summary, not every action taken by every responder. San Francisco specifically warns that its dispatch arrest and report codes should not be used to calculate official arrest or report totals. Counting those labels would measure coded calls, with the source's limitations, rather than the separate official measures.

The distinction also matters for missing values. A blank may mean no value was supplied, the record is still changing, or the public extract does not include it. Do not replace a missing value with “no action” unless the codebook explicitly instructs you to do so.

When interpreting an unfamiliar disposition, identify the issuing agency, system, field definition, and date of the codebook. Then state the outcome at the level the record supports: “the call was marked report taken” is more precise than claiming that an investigation was completed or a crime solved.

Sources