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GlossaryReports, outcomes, and case status

Disposition code

A disposition code is a shorthand outcome label in a call or case record. Use the correct agency codebook and distinguish codes from official totals.

A disposition code is a short value that represents a recorded outcome or handling action for a call or case. Letters, numbers, or abbreviations save space, but their meanings come from the issuing system's codebook. The same-looking code can mean different things in different agencies or fields.

Decode the field before interpreting the result

A file may store a code such as “REP” while a public website displays a longer description. The codebook connects the two. A data dictionary usually identifies what the field represents; the codebook supplies the meanings of its allowed values. Both can be needed to interpret a record correctly.

San Diego's calls-for-service page links separate disposition references, including historical material. It also provides separate call-type and priority references. This organization illustrates why the correct field and time period must be identified before looking up a value. San Diego field documentation.

A code is a summary. It may describe the last recorded handling action rather than every action throughout a response. Reading the expanded words is necessary, but the accompanying explanation can be just as important.

Example

Hypothetical example using documented San Francisco codes: A public call record has call type “alarm” and disposition “PAS.” The city's September 10, 2021 explainer expands PAS as “Premises Appears Secure.” A second record has “REP,” meaning that the incident resulted in a police report. A third has “ND,” which the explainer associates with a related call carrying the disposition.

The first code describes the premises as they appeared during the response; it does not prove that every possible problem was ruled out. The second indicates report-related handling, not a conviction. The third should not be translated into “officers did nothing.” Its meaning depends on the associated record. San Francisco disposition table.

These mappings illustrate that particular published codebook. They are not a universal decoding key and should not be applied to another agency's file without confirmation.

Common confusion

A code is not the full disposition narrative. The short value may omit referrals, warnings, multiple responders' actions, or later developments.

An arrest code is not an arrest count. San Francisco expressly warns that counting its ARR disposition does not reproduce official arrest statistics. The row counts a dispatch incident; a separate arrest dataset may use a different unit and reporting process.

A missing code is not a negative outcome. Blank, unknown, not applicable, and a documented “no disposition” code can have distinct meanings. Preserve those distinctions in a table rather than combining them automatically.

Keeping a lookup accurate

Match the codebook to the agency, system, field, and record date. Preserve codes as text when leading zeros or letters are meaningful. If a code is absent from the available reference, label it as unexplained instead of guessing from its initials.

For analysis, keep the original code beside any expanded description. That makes transformations reviewable and helps identify changes when a code is renamed or retired. If you group several outcomes into a broader category, publish the mapping so readers can see which original values were included.

Finally, distinguish a count of records with a code from the outcome that the code appears to describe. “Forty calls marked REP” is a narrower, supportable statement than “forty official reports” when the source specifically warns against that inference.

Sources