New Funding to Help Gather Data on Homicide, Suicide and other Violent Deaths

The Tennessee Department of Health Office of the State Chief Medical Examiner has received $1.4 million in funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to gather critical data on homicide, suicide and other violent deaths. Tennessee is one of ten states to receive new funding to use the National Violent Death Reporting System, which will provide NVDRS with state-level data on violent deaths from all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.
The National Violent Death Reporting System helps state and local officials understand where, when, why and how violent deaths occur by linking data from the medical examiner, law enforcement, toxicology and vital statistics records. It is the only data system for homicide and suicide that links law enforcement data with data from non-law enforcement sources.
Violence is a significant public health problem in Tennessee. In 2017, more than 1,800 Tennesseans died as the result of homicide or suicide.