Government
BY ARIEL WORTHY
Houston’s new firearm injury dashboard reports first findings City officials, in partnership with the Houston Health Department and Texas Medical Center partners, released the first four months of data from a new firearm-injury tracking dashboard, the first of its kind in the U.S. What is it? SafeWatch dashboard reports number of firearm-related injuries 2020 2022 2021 2023 2024 2025 4K 3K
2K
Using Level 1 trauma center clinical data and city- wide emergency response systems, the SafeWatch dashboard breaks down firearm injuries by age, race, sex, intent, outcome, location and risk factors. The dashboard, which launched in December 2025, also breaks down whether the incidents were fatal or not, and if they resulted in an emer- gency department visit or a Level 1 trauma center visit. It is updated quarterly, city officials said. More information In 2025, there were 194 trauma center visits for unintentional incidents. Of those, nearly half were people 24 years old or younger. District C council
1K
0
Emergency department visits
Level 1 trauma center visits
EMS calls
Police-reported non-fatal injuries
Deaths
SOURCES: CITY OF HOUSTON, HOUSTON HEALTH DEPARTMENT/COMMUNITY IMPACT
member Abbie Kamin said they hope to use the dashboard to help find ways to prevent those incidents. During the public speaking portion of the meet- ing, several doctors and health care professionals spoke in support of the dashboard and furthering its functions.
Next steps Officials said they are next hoping to integrate Level 2 and 3 trauma center data, add enhance- ments for a deeper dive into the data and have regular task force meetings with partners at the Texas Medical Center to discuss trends found in the data.
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