Cook County Launches Dashboard Focused on Opioid, Gun and Temperature-related Deaths

Dashboard designed to make critical information more accessible to policymakers, health officials and residents

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle unveiled the Medical Examiner Case Archive Dashboard today. The dashboard provides direct, transparent access to vital information about opioid-related, gun-related and temperature-related deaths.

“Opioids and guns are the two greatest causes of unnatural deaths in Cook County, they are also the most preventable,” said President Preckwinkle. “Cook County’s Black and Brown communities are most impacted by these deaths. The goal here is not to build dashboards with frightening statistics. The goal is to make the need for these dashboards obsolete.”

In 2023, Black and Latino residents comprised 72% of the 1,821 opioid-related deaths and 86% of the 942 gun-related deaths in Cook County. 

The County’s Medical Examiner’s Office worked closely with the Bureau of Technology’s Geographic information Systems team to create the new dashboard. The dashboard allows users to access a range of demographic information for Cook County residents who’ve died as a result of opioid, gun or temperature-related deaths, including age, gender, race and ethnicity. Visitors to the dashboard can also pinpoint which neighborhoods are experiencing higher death rates, seeing the number and dates of death in those areas.

“The Bureau of Technology builds applications that provide transparency for the public and, more generally, open government,” said Cook County Chief Information Officer Tom Lynch. “We harness the demographics of our County – the populations and the regions in which they live – and apply our analytical skills to help agencies provide critical information to the public.”

The dashboard also allows users to filter data by municipality within Cook County, and to sort opioid-related, gun-related and temperature-related deaths using existing case archive maps.   

“It is our responsibility to share as much information about these victims and their environment as possible so that our partners in public health and law enforcement as well as policymakers and advocacy organizations can develop treatments, protocols and legislation that can help to curb these deaths,” said Cook County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Ponni Arunkumar. “Our ultimate goal is to extend the length and enhance the quality of life for every resident, regardless of their zip code.”

To use the dashboard, visit https://maps.cookcountyil.gov/medexammaps/. 

To see a demo of the dashboard, click here.

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