Texas city launches a new dashboard to fill gaps in gun violence data
M-Production via Getty Images
Accidental shootings are often overlooked by officials when considering efforts to reduce gun violence incidents, one Houston city official said.
A recent self-inflicted shooting of a 4-year-old boy in Houston highlights an underrecognized public safety issue that one local leader is striving to address with the power of data.
The accidental shooting occurred after the child gained access to an unsecured firearm in his apartment in October, leaving him in critical condition. Collecting data on such incidents could help policymakers better target prevention and intervention measures to reduce gun-related injuries in communities, said Houston City Council Member Abbie Kamin.
“I kept putting my own son to bed, thinking about families that put their children to bed, never realizing that this could happen to them,” Kamin said.
Many data resources don’t include gun injuries, which can stymie efforts to fully capture a comprehensive view of gun violence in communities, she explained. In a bid to close that data gap, Kamin supported the development of a local data dashboard that tracks gun-related injuries and deaths across the city.
The dashboard, launched last week, offers insights on firearm-related injuries by sex, age, race and ethnicity, as well as whether an incident was intentional or unintentional. Users can also view reported gun injury and death incidents by location at the ZIP code level or time of day and year.
The data reflects incidents like firearm-related visits to emergency departments and trauma centers, calls to emergency medical services and nonfatal gun-related injuries reported to the police since 2019. The data will be updated on a quarterly basis from sources including the Houston Health Department, Houston Fire Department, Houston Police Department, the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences Medical Examiner’s Office and participating health care providers.
“There’s been this whole piece of the puzzle … that was missing, and what we’ve done is bring it all together,” she said, adding that the dashboard “allows us to uncover trends that traditional crime data misses, and it allows us to support policies that are rooted in more actual, accurate pictures of what the community needs.”
Data shows, for instance, that more than half of intentional shootings occur among children or young adults under 24 years, she said.
City leaders could then better target gun safety communication efforts to communities or populations that indicate a higher rate of firearm-related injuries or increase investments in resources like gun locks to distribute to residents, Kamin said.
Officials will also continue to consider how to expand the dashboard, such as including information on whether certain types of drugs were involved during shooting incidents, she said.
“Policymakers can use the data to identify in this context where firearm injuries are happening, the different scenarios that they’re happening in, the different areas and different demographics, and then direct resources, outreach and prevention programming more effectively,” Kamin said.
While the current dashboard covers data in Houston, the resource aims to “be replicated as a tool and a blueprint for other cities,” she said.