National Violent Death Reporting System

In 2002 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began implementing the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). NVDRS is a state-based surveillance system that links data from law enforcement, coroners and medical examiners, vital statistics, and crime laboratories to assist each participating state in designing and implementing tailored prevention and intervention efforts. NVDRS provides data on violence trends at national and regional levels; each state can access all of these important data elements from one central database.

States that are funded for NVDRS operate under a cooperative agreement with CDC to whom all violent deaths are voluntarily reported. NVDRS funded six states initially. In 2009 CDC received funding to expand the system to a total of 18 states. The goal is to include eventually all 50 states, all U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia in the system.