Creative Government: Using Analytics to Go Beyond Performance Management

John Feinblatt, chief advisor for policy and strategic planning to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, posted an interesting article on GOVERNING.com. In it, Mr. Feinblatt discusses the power of analytics and how governments, particularly city governments, can use it as a tool to anticipate and stay ahead of issues facing their communities.

Analytics, commonly defined as “the method of logical analysis,” uses data from multiple sources and predictive analysis to find patterns of interest. Increasingly, large cities are creating dedicated data analytics teams to identify and prioritize high-risk areas and target scarce resources where they can be most effective.

For example, Mayor Bloomberg’s analytics team launched successful analytics programs in three areas: fire risk, prescription drug abuse, and mortgage fraud. In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s technology and data team is using advanced analytics to identify progressions among 311 events within neighborhoods, allowing the city to develop tailored, proactive strategies to reduce costs and improve service delivery. And in Boston, the mayor’s analytics team is using several data sources (e.g., citizen complaints, code violations, and tax records) to predict where absentee landlords may be hurting neighborhoods with unmaintained properties.

This press release from Mayor Bloomberg’s office has more information on how cities are working together to share methodologies, challenges, and successes in implementing analytics programs.