The use of emergency medical services data to identify concentrations of violence and drug activity: A review

Preliminary evidence points to the value of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) data in identifying locations of drug activity, violence, and disorder in communities. A critical review conducted in 2016 by Taylor and colleagues determined that ambulance data are a unique supplement in understanding community violence, particularly with respect to violent crime locations. Since 2016, several additional studies that use EMS data to understand crime hot spots of violence as well as drug activity have been published. This systematic review is an effort to update what is known about the use of EMS data in diagnosing and understanding micro-places concentrated with drug activity or violence. Overall, we identify 21 studies that utilize EMS data to identify micro-place concentrations of drug or violence, 12 of which also look at the extent to which these concentrations overlap with other data sources, primarily police data. We conclude EMS data should be considered by agencies and researchers when identifying micro-place concentrations for the prevention and reduction of drug and violence issues.