Injury surveillance through ambulance data: A ‘proof of concept’ approach

• In Event: Measuring Effectiveness of New Criminal Justice Initiatives: Methodological Innovations in Research from the RAND Corporation

Abstract

RAND Europe partnered with West Midlands Police (UK) to examine the possible uses of ambulance data for preventive interventions, particularly targeting violence unknown to the police. Since the 1990s, police in the UK have used emergency department data as a source of ‘injury surveillance’ that can assist police in reducing violence through what is commonly known as the 'Cardiff model' of violence prevention. Ambulance data – collected routinely as a result of emergency call-outs – has been identified as potentially adding value in helping police and other public agencies better understand the types and levels of violence in their jurisdictions.
This presentation will outline the rationale for using ambulance data as well as the implementation and evaluation approach being pursued within this project. The presentation will examine three questions. First, how much ‘new’ information is in this data source, relative to data already available to police? Second, does the new information add value for police, and how might we know if it does? Third, can the kind of intervention in this project – the provision of ‘soft’ intelligence – be randomized for testing within a police force? Along with the strategies used to answer these questions, early findings on intervention implementation will be discussed.

Authors

• Alex Sutherland, RAND Europe

• Chris Giacomantonio, RAND Europe