How to Find Data on Shootings
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| Shootings in Baltimore, MD in less than a month period |
SpotCrime is the only crime mapping company that intentionally breaks out shootings from assaults and makes a shooting it’s own stand alone icon. In many cases, this is not an easy task.
Police agencies identify shootings a couple of ways so the ability for residents to identify when a shooting occurs becomes difficult. Occasionally shooting data is easy to find, and other times it is buried under complex systems of crime classifications. We’ve found that CAD data sets identify shootings immediately, mainly because they have not been assigned a crime classification yet (think UCR/NIBRS). RMS (Records Management System) data can be great if there is some sort of description made available.
Below are the different ways we’ve found agencies identify a shooting in datasets available to the public:
- Shootings as their own category (this is rare). New Orleans began doing this recently. Most notably, the NYPD has been doing this since the COMPSTAT implementation in the 90’s. Oakland, CA releases their ShotSpotter data (Note: it's a couple of months behind and there are no mapable locations associated with the information provided).
- Shootings categorized as ‘assault’ with an identifier in the description. This happens occasionally and leaves the shooting lumped under the same category as incidents like fist fights. In the description a keyword like ‘handgun’, ‘firearm’, or ‘shots fired’ helps with identification. Cities like DC, Chicago, Detroit, and Philly use this method.
- Shootings categorized as ‘assault’ with no identifier. This makes shootings completely invisible. Austin uses this method.
- No timely crime data available. You’re left waiting months to see data. Larger agencies don’t typically do this anymore, however, Minneapolis, Camden County, and Boston are a few examples.
Looking for shooting data? Check out the different sources we’ve compiled below. Keep in mind a lot of the federal level data is out of date by months or years.
Comprehensive shooting datasets available
Federal sources:
There is no nationally mandated repository tracking shootings in the US.
Independent sources:
GunViolenceArchive.org - this is the only site we’ve found attempting to keep track of all shootings it the US, even if there were no homicides or deaths (besides SpotCrime). They have datasets on deaths, injuries, children involved, teens involved, mass shootings, officer involved shootings, home invasions, defensive use, and accidental shootings.
Slate - view their 2013 to 2015 map here and their table here.
Police Involved Shootings
Federal sources:
Public Safety Open Data Portal Officer Involved Shootings created in accordance with the White House's Task Force on 21st Century Policing - Police Data Initiative
Independent sources:
The Guardian’s ‘The Counted’
Washington Post’s ‘Fatal Force’
Wikipedia’s List of killings by law enforcement
Mass Shootings
Federal:
FBI Active Shooter (not particularly helpful in terms of data collection)
Independent:
Mother Jones US Mass Shootings map
Mother Jones US Mass Shootings table
USAToday Behind the Bloodshed
Stanford Library Mass Shootings of America
Suicides involving guns
Federal:
CDC FastFacts
CDC WISQARS
Independent:
New England Journal of Medicine: Guns and Suicide
Homicides and firearms
Federal:
Federal:
NIJ Gun Violence
FBI Murder Victims by Weapon (This is just 2014 data, but Googling ‘FBI Murder Victims by Weapon’ to find different years/summaries is easier than trying to navigate the FBI’s website)
Independent:
Are we missing a particularly helpful source? Let us know and we will add it to this post.
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