The South Bend (Ind.) Police Department launched a “Transparency Hub” on April 26. Using tools produced by Esri, the city’s Innovation and Technology Department partnered with the police to create the interactive dashboard, which reveals the prevalence of certain crimes over time.
Chicagoans now have a one-stop shop for discovering which restaurants have outdoor seating, where TV shows are filming in the city, and restaurant health inspection results–a newly redesigned open data portal.
Early last week the New York Police Department was slapped with a lawsuit alleging that the policies surrounding its body camera program turn the cameras “from an accountability tool into a tool for surveilling and criminalizing New Yorkers.” On Friday, Judge Analisa Torres dismissed the suit as being premature and said the pilot program could move forward.
CityGrows is a cloud-based workflow and transparency platform for local governments. With a focus on helping governments transition from paper-based processes to a digital platform, CityGrows improves the experience of interacting with public services for constituents and government employees, while also increasing public access to information about how government works.
Cities need to develop open data policies, but that’s easier said than done. The Sunlight Foundation, a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that uses technology and policy analysis to improve government transparency and accountability, recently released a free Open Data Policy Wizard.
Prince George’s County, Md., on Monday released two new open data sets and plans to release another set in the coming weeks. The first two data sets contain information about agency performance and the Transforming Neighborhoods Initiative. The data sets will have updated versions of city information that was released in August about citizen complaints and requests.
Cincinnati’s Office of Performance and Data Analytics recently launched CincyInsights, an open data portal with 15 dashboards containing city information.
The California secretary of state has improved access to more than 5.3 million records related to corporations, limited liability companies, and limited partnerships through the creation of a new Business Search Tool, which allows citizens to have online access to data that was previously available only through in-person or mail requests.
More than 500 people have visited Oakland County’s new open data portal, which was launched Nov. 1 and offers access to 92 data sets.
Denton, Texas, is the first city in the United States to fully implement the OpenGov Open Data Solution, which provides tools to help increase public trust, facilitate civic action, and embrace the future of smart government.
