Building a surveillance system for violent deaths in the District of Columbia - The District of Columbia (DC) is a 68 square mile jurisdiction nestled between the states of Maryland and Virginia. The District is the nation’s capital, serves as the home of the United States Federal Government and more than 160 foreign embassies, and is home to a resident population of approximately 700,000 people. Due to the large federal workforce and visitors from around the world, the population of the District on any given day is approximately 1.5 million to 2 million people. The population of the District is racially diverse with 45% African American, 42% Caucasian, 4% Asian, and 7% other. Approximately 9% of the population is of Hispanic origin, and 13% is foreign born. The District of Columbia has made great strides in reducing mortality from violent deaths, particularly homicides, which are down from historic and nation leading highs in the 1990s to a much more manageable number now. However, deep disparities across racial and ward (geographical lines) persist. Despite dramatic reductions in violent mortality, there still exists a salient opportunity to further reduce deaths, in addition to an urgent need to address the racial/geospatial disparities in deaths. Traditionally, violent death and injury has been looked at strictly as a legal/law enforcement issue. With this surveillance system, the District of Columbia intends to truly treat violent death as a public health problem, and bring a new approach and resources to first understand the problem, then inform and execute effective prevention strategies. In developing an efficient and comprehensive system to track and describe violent deaths, the District of Columbia Department of Health will continue to provide NVDRS data that can be used to inform prevention efforts and reduce the number of deaths. This system will gather vital information on the circumstances surrounding violent crime, including suspect, victim and weapon data, which can be used to examine the context and predictors of violent crime within the District of Columbia, and arm prevention and law enforcement groups with timely and comprehensive data to reduce violent deaths. The District of Columbia Department of Health will maintain its robust and comprehensive surveillance system capable of capturing data on violent deaths in a timely and effective manner. The resources from this project will strengthen existing relationships with our public health and legal partners, as well as trigger new collaborations based on the dissemination of this vital data. With regular reporting, with input and requests from our stakeholders, effective data that can inform violence prevention and mitigation activities will be available for the first time.
