EXPLORE THE VISUAL STORY NOW

A small number of New Jersey police officers account for the large majority of restraints, punches, kicks and other force.

That’s long been the theory of policing experts, and new data proves it’s true.

From 2012 through 2016, the most recent year of data available, more than 17,369 officers used some type of force. But among that group, 5 percent of officers accounted for more than a quarter of all uses of force.

And 252 officers used force more than 20 times during the five-year period, more than five times the statewide average.

They are the extreme outliers. Explore them now.

The Force Report is a continuing investigation of police use of force in New Jersey. Read more from the series or search your local police department and officers in the full the database.

Read more from The Force Report:

We are continuing to make this dataset better. The numbers in this story were last updated Jan. 8, 2019. See the changes we’ve made here.

Yan Wu may be reached at ywu@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @codingyan.