Using 9-1-1 call data and the space-time permutation scan statistic for emergency event detection

The space-time permutation scan statistic has been previously used to detect disease outbreaks, without need for uniform population at risk, control group data, or information about the distribution of population-at-risk in order to establish the statistical significance of found clusters of cases. This paper shows results from using the space-time permutation scan statistic to detect clusters of 9-1-1 emergency calls. These clusters are then correlated with wide-scale emergency events as reported on the news. Using several examples, it is shown that these clusters are useful for estimating the location, temporal extent, and human impact of such emergency events.