The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) is a comprehensive, linked reporting system that collects and centralizes information on violent deaths from sources including: medical examiners, coroners, law enforcement, and vital statistics.

Information gathered in the NVDRS provides researchers, law enforcement and public health officials with the opportunity to better understand the circumstances of violent deaths and the contexts in which they occur. With a more complete picture, law enforcement and public health officials are more effective at working together to identify those at risk and put into place effective prevention policies and programs that may save lives.

Housed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the NVDRS is already a vital surveillance and data collection tool. In 2018, thanks to a growing coalition of supporters led by the National Violence Prevention Network, the CDC received Congressional appropriations to expand the program to all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico for the first time since its inception. The program is on its way to fulfilling the promise of improving understanding of violent death to develop lifesaving preventative interventions across the entire country.