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BPD outlines use of small federal/state death-reporting grant that feeds CDC data
Summary
Lieutenant Dan Duff told the council the department uses the Massachusetts Violent Death Reporting System grant to collect data on circumstances of violent deaths and report to the state, which compiles information shared with the CDC; the grant historically funded equipment but recently has supported training.
Lieutenant Dan Duff of the Boston Police homicide unit described the department’s role in the Massachusetts Violent Death Reporting System and explained how the grant noted on the docket supports data collection and reporting to the state injury surveillance program and the CDC.
Duff said BPD provides data elements including circumstances, suspect/victim relationships and firearms/ballistics information and that department staff meet annually with state injury surveillance staff to prepare the data. "It's something that we've been working on, with them since, 2003," Duff said. He told the committee the state program uses information from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and other sources to compile comparative state-by-state statistics.
Duff said the grant money has been used in the past to buy equipment but in recent years has been used primarily for training because the department’s training budget is limited. The council did not vote on the small grant at the conclusion of the hearing; staff will move the dockets forward in committee report to the full council.
