The top official at the federal border agency released on Friday for the first time the full text of its handbook on the use of force by border agents, as well as a 2013 report by an outside group that was sharply critical of the agency’s conduct in cases where agents’ force had resulted in deaths.

Gil Kerlikowske, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said he was publicizing the documents to show his commitment to new “openness and transparency” at the agency, which he took over in March. For many months, migrant advocacy organizations and journalists had pressed for the release of the documents, including the report by the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonpartisan group in Washington, which was commissioned by the agency and completed in February 2013.

The research forum examined 67 episodes from January 2010 through October 2012 where deadly force had been used, mainly by Border Patrol agents along the Southwest border. The report focused particularly on incidents where agents had responded by shooting when they were attacked with rocks or when they were attempting to stop smugglers’ vehicles carrying illegal border crossers or drugs. In some instances, Border Patrol agents shot through fences along the border at rock throwers on the other side in Mexico.

In blunt terms, the review identified “laxity of reporting” of rock-throwing, finding that agents were only reporting the most serious attacks they faced. But the forum also found a “lack of diligence” by the agency in investigating episodes where deadly force had been used. While the report recognized that Border Patrol agents have a “unique and hazardous assignment,” with frequent rock attacks and confrontations with armed smugglers of migrants and narcotics, it found that in several cases where agents shot at rock throwers, the force appeared to be excessive.