Public health approaches to crime and injury prevention are increasingly focused on the physical places and environments where violence is concentrated. In this study, our aim is to explore the association between historic place-based racial discrimination captured in the 1937 Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) map of Philadelphia and present-day violent crime and firearm injuries. The creators of the 1937 HOLC map zoned Philadelphia based in a hierarchical system wherein first-grade and green color zones were used to indicate areas desirable for government-backed mortgage lending and economic development, a second-grade or blue zone for areas that were already developed and stable, a third-grade or yellow zone for areas with evidence of decline and influx of a "low grade population," and fourth-grade or red zone for areas with dilapidated or informal housing and an "undesirable population" of predominately Black residents. We conducted an empirical spatial analysis of the concentration of firearm assaults and violent crimes in 2013 through 2014 relative to zoning in the 1937 HOLC map. After adjusting for socio-demographic factors at the time the map was created from the 1940 Census, firearm injury rates are highest in historically red-zoned areas of Philadelphia. The relationship between HOLC map zones and general violent crime is not supported after adjusting for historical Census data. This analysis extends historic perspective to the relationship between emplaced structural racism and violence, and situates the socio-ecological context in which people live at the forefront of this association.

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Profound disparity in exposure to firearm violence by race and place exists in Philadelphia. Black people were substantially more likely than White people to sustain firearm assault, regardless of neighborhood income.

Transportation of violently injured individuals to the hospital by police, also known as “scoop and run,” may shorten the time between injury and hospital care when emergency medical services are delayed or unavailable. In this article, we explore the history and contemporary applications of this strategy and its broader impact on public safety systems. Current evidence suggests that when comparing police hospital transport and emergency medical services transport for violently injured individuals, survival rates are at least equivalent; in some studies, survival rates are better for violently injured individuals transported by police. Though understudied, police transport may improve survival for violently injured individuals as well as perceptions of police in communities where mistrust is common. Only a select few cities have codified this approach and police role. Geographic context, emergency response capacity, and the nature of encounters between law enforcement and victims of violence are important for other jurisdictions considering police-to-hospital transport.