Ever wondered how many people are being shot in Houston? Well, now you no longer have to guess.<\/p>\n
Tuesday, the Houston Health Department launched the SAFEWatch Houston dashboard<\/a>, which tracks firearm-related injuries across the city.<\/p>\n Councilwoman Abbie Kamin spearheaded the project, which relies on reporting from three Level I trauma centers. She said it cost taxpayers $300,000, including $60,000 from her office’s budget.<\/p>\n It’s the first time such data has been publicly available in Houston, although Philadelphia’s health department has a similar dashboard<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Now that we have this better picture of what’s happening, we can do something about it,” Kamin said.<\/p>\n The dashboard shows 18,349 firearm-related emergency room visits since 2019. Of the victims, 286 were children under the age of 10.<\/p>\n From Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, the dashboard records 454 gun-related deaths, 261 of which are classified as homicides.<\/p>\n Kamin said health leaders have agreed to routine meetings to review the data and come up with solutions.<\/p>\n “In one zip code where we see a higher rate of unintentional shootings of children, we may be focused more on pediatric screenings, like you do with car seats,” she said.<\/p>\n “Such zip code could be a good place to hand out gun locks,” Kamin suggested.<\/p>\n Eyewitness News noticed Kamin enlisted the help of two public relations firms to promote the launch of the dashboard: Etched Communication and Selph Strategies.<\/p>\n In an effort to shine a light on government spending, ABC13 asked Kamin if any taxpayer money was used to pay the firms, but she initially refused to say and walked away when pressed for specifics.<\/p>\n “I’m not gonna speak to that right now,” Kamin said.<\/p>\n Kamin later agreed to a second interview in which she said she used campaign funds to pay for the PR firms, but couldn’t recall how much they were paid.<\/p>\n “The public dollars that have gone towards this have strictly gone to the actual creation of the dashboard, and we’re really, really proud of that,” she said.<\/p>\n The dashboard will be updated four times a year. Data for this year only runs through Sept. 30.<\/p>\n For news updates, follow Luke Jones on Facebook<\/a>, X<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n