How Chicago is using data to do ‘more with less’

Jonathan Andrews spoke to Carleton Nolan, Chief Technology Officer, and Interim Chief Information Officer, Chicago, on the sidelines of the City Leadership Forum, convened by the Cities Today Institute

The city’s former CIO, Danielle DuMerer, stepped down in August. What is the city looking for in the next CIO and how are you managing the day-to-day running of the department as interim CIO?

Right now we are managing it as business as usual. Even though there may be an opening or there may be a search, we have to keep the business of the city running first and foremost.

We do have procurement in place where we are looking to do an assessment of the city’s infrastructure. We have somewhat older infrastructure and we want to be able to build a foundation where we can take advantage of all of the newer technologies—so that we are not building something on something so old where we find ourselves trapped, where we can’t upgrade and where we can’t take advantage of technology because our foundation has aged. That is one of the key areas we are focusing on, so we are hoping to bring someone on that we can partner with to go through doing the analysis, identify gaps, and from that report create a strategy where we can move forward.

You mentioned here in Chicago at the City Leadership Forum that the city is using data analytics for restaurant inspections. Could you tell me a little bit more about that?

It has helped us to be more efficient in terms of identifying restaurants where there may be issues. Trying to get ahead of the game instead of having to respond to a customer who, for whatever reason, fell ill or things of that nature. It’s about trying to be proactive so that we can get ahead and hit those restaurants that as a result of the algorithm are identified and say, ‘Hey we probably need to get out to these particular restaurants to do the inspections’.

It is being proactive rather than reactive but at the same time we are doing more with less. We have so many restaurants in Chicago but not that many inspectors. So being able to go through that and utilise a tool and prioritise has been very helpful. It’s about being more efficient so that we are not wasting our time and going to a restaurant where we didn’t necessarily have to go.

Chicago is often held up as a best case example of how to a roll out a successful network of sensors–the city’s Array of Things. How is that unfolding?

We are still actively involved in that and I think now we have about 100 sensors around the city. A big part of that and one of the things we wanted to make sure is that they were equitably placed and not just in one area; be it barometric, temperature, pollution, noise–we wanted it to be equitable across the city.

There was a focus on educating citizens because there were some concerns that they were being put up to take pictures and capture personal identifiable information. It was more educational. We are doing this to benefit our city and so we identify issues we are able to respond to based upon the data that we were able to collect and then make those adjustments as needed.

We try to do a lot in terms of engaging our residents. At the end of the day it is all about serving the needs of the citizen. If we try to build something without their input we fail, because again we are trying to make sure the city is liveable for everyone and going by what is right for them. It’s important we are using tax payers’ money in the right way and meeting their needs. Otherwise you have the potential of rolling something out that could ultimately fail because you never took the time to engage residents. That has been something that is extremely important and it paid a huge part in the success of the 311 rollout, and getting feedback from young people and Commissioner Tamley’s [Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities] involvement, not just from our residents but people from the disability community and making sure that they can use it as well.

Many cities look to Chicago for use cases and not only in regard to the city’s 311 and sensor programme. Does Chicago also look to other and smaller cities?

Yeah absolutely! There is definitely value in looking at what they are doing and how they are doing it. While they be more nimble than us there is value in terms of identifying what types of strategy that they use. It is still relevant whether you are big or small because again the focus is to address the needs of the residents. In many cases it could actually be a benefit because if you are nimble enough you can come up with some very creative solutions and you may not be able to adapt it right away but you can certainly present it and work it through the powers that be in the bigger cities. There is definitely value for collaborating not just with big cities, because everybody has value that they bring to the table.