Tracking Violent Crime with Ambulance Data: How Much Crime Goes Uncounted?

The majority of violent incidents recorded by ambulance and emergency services are not reported to the police. This article, which examined data from West Midlands, UK, suggests that adding medical data could increase the number of identified violent offences by 15 to 20% to the totals recorded by police alone. Tracking ambulance data, which is collected automatically and includes location data for each call, could not only identify substantially more serious violent crimes but also increase the targeting of police and public health resources to prevent harm against victims at places and by offenders at highest risk of serious violence.