About the data
Data for the CBS News Baltimore Gun Violence Tracker comes from the Baltimore Police Department's Part 1 Crime dataset, which reflects major (Part 1) crime against persons such as homicide, shooting, robbery, aggravated assault etc. within the City of Baltimore. The data is updated by the Baltimore Police Department and the Baltimore Open Data portal every day, and typically lags a few hours. That means shooting incidents that happened within the last few hours of the data being updated may not be included.
This data only includes incidents reported to the Baltimore Police Department (BPD). Our analysis covers three tiers of gun violence: individuals who were shot and killed, those who were shot and survived, and those involved in armed encounters where a firearm was reported but the victim was not shot. CBS considers all these individuals as "victims" of gun violence due to the significant safety implications and the impact of encountering an armed crime. Additionally, BPD reports the use of a firearm in a violent crime even if the presence of a gun was not confirmed; for example, if a perpetrator reached for an object in their backpack that the victim believed to be a gun.
Our analysis adheres to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) hierarchy rule, which prioritizes the most serious offense in a multi-crime incident. We focused only on incidents involving firearms. To prevent overcounting, we excluded shooting incidents where the victim was also listed under another crime, such as aggravated assault. This ensures a more accurate count of shooting victims without duplications.
Designed and built by Rachel Gold and Grace Manthey
