Past research exploring correlates to gunshot wound fatality have focused on the distance between the victim/incident location and trauma care facilities. Far less is known regarding the role of first responders in linking individuals to trauma care services. This study introduces a new method for measuring proximity to trauma care services and first responder locations, using the STATA OSRMTIME package to assess this relationship. A positive and significant relationship was found between travel time, measured in minutes, from first responder locations and the likelihood of gunshot fatality, controlling for age, race, sex, and, injury severity.

Prior research has examined how social media has been integrated into law enforcement operations; however, this research has not fully explored the potential for this technology to function as an effective community policing strategy. Through the creation of a uniquely large dataset constructed with individual “tweets,” the current study analyzed Twitter use by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in 2016. Using a mixed-methods approach, this research identified linkages between social media and community policing, the level of adherence to community policing objectives, the potential for heterogeneity in usage across different NYPD patrol boroughs, and the degree of public engagement. Our findings suggest Twitter is inimitably positioned to contribute to each aspect of community policing, although its effectiveness varied across dimension typology. Second, heterogeneity was also observed across patrol boroughs, indicating both the objectives and application of social media varies within the agency. Lastly, engagement metrics reveal a few notable trends concerning police-community relations.

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