Oswaldo Mestre, Director, Division of Citizen Services, Office of the Mayor, City of Buffalo 311 Call and Resolution Center

SuperNova Award Category

  • Data to Decisions
  • Next Generation Customer Experience

The Company 

The City of Buffalo 311 Call and Resolution Center, in conjunction with the ancillary programs within the  Division of Citizen Services, upholds the common goal of improving the quality life of all residents through a targeted and systematic approach to service delivery. More than just a call center, 311 increases the City's effectiveness in responding to public inquiries by allowing City agencies to focus on their core missions and manage their workloads more efficiently. Furthermore, the data collected from 311 service requests also provides insight into the needs and concerns of residents and promotes accountability by ensuring that services are being delivered in a consistent and timely manner citywide.

The Problem

The Division of Citizen Services’ Operation Clean Sweep is a collaborative initiative designed to bring  city and community services directly to the doorsteps of those that need it most. Using data mostly from 311, the Division identifies various areas of the city to send the Clean Sweep team of a city, state, county and federal government police and health and human service providers to offer educational outreach, along with beautification crews to address physical issues in the area. This is the first City initiative to utilize Big Data, and in doing so, has been able to effectively pinpoint areas of greatest need and provide the services that best address the main challenges in the community.

The Solution 

While Clean Sweeps have been conducted in Buffalo for some time, prior to the utilization of Big Data in 2008, the locations were subjectively chosen based mostly on observation. In realizing that this resulted in many at risk neighborhoods being overlooked, the Division began using a more evidence-informed method to identifying areas to be targeted during Clean Sweep. Today, the Division does this by layering data from its non-emergency 311 CRM system, 911 calls, and database of socioeconomic indicators (such as poverty and unemployment levels).  This transition in methodology sought to strengthen the impact and expand the efforts of the Clean Sweep initiative.

The Results

In 2012, the City of Buffalo’s Save Our Streets (SOS) Clean Sweep Task Force conducted 27 sweeps and 2 mini-sweeps citywide as part of the Mayor’s quality of life initiative. The program’s partners, which includes 30 to 40 departments, have volunteered 6,075 manpower hours and addressed issues at approximately 5,400 properties – the most ever made during a 12-month period. Since the program’s inception in 2006, the Clean Sweep Task Force has successfully conducted 152 neighborhood clean sweeps. Today the program has been expanded so that sweeps are occurring once a week.
Since utilizing 311 data in selecting neighborhoods to target, the Clean Sweep Task Force has been able to deliver services more directly than ever before. This has included:
• 6,342 square feet of graffiti removed
• 1,152 trees pruned
• 1,195 tires removed
• 139 board ups
• 13 demolished homes
• 3,467 properties baited
• 2,285 oral hygiene bags distributed
• 717 referrals for employment counseling
• 160 carbon monoxide detectors distributed

The Technology:

The Division analyzes data collected via its 311 Call and Resolution Center; complaints are verbally taken from residents and then entered into Buffalo’s KANA LAGAN CRM system, from KANA Software, for case management and resolution. The City also uses location data from 911 calls, and socioeconomic indicators, to identify neighborhoods most at risk and to pinpoint delivery of resources. The 311 technology allows the City to track issues, get locations, categorize and store each department’s issues in one system, thereby enabling each department to prioritize and respond to issues accordingly.

Metrics 

Since 2006, expansion efforts were made to triple the amount of Clean Sweeps conducted annually. Prior to Mayor Byron Brown's administration, 7-8 clean sweeps were organized and implemented annually. The 311 data has created a method of identifying areas that may have been overlooked when using the subjective evaluating techniques. Transitioning created an avenue for the Division to target more areas in dire need of services from both government and human service providers. By 2012, the Clean Sweep Task Force conducted 27 sweeps addressing almost 5,400 properties throughout the City of Buffalo, tripling their efforts from its inception.

The inclusion of 311 data has facilitated the expansion of the Clean Sweep initiative because it produced a clearer picture of a neighborhood, chiefly in ways it has been neglected. Pinpointing the issues allowed the Division to identify departments and agencies that could directly address specific challenges in an immediate fashion. Originally, the sweeps were geared towards law enforcement and crime deterrent activities; however, 311 data revealed there were structural and aesthetic problems in these areas as well. This discovery fueled the inclusion of the beautification crews who are responsible for such tasks as debris removal, tree pruning, sidewalk repair, and vacant home board ups. Clean Sweep has increased their partnerships to approximately 40 due to the insight provided by the data captured by 311. The Division can not only determine which areas to apply resources to through the sweeps, but can also analyze the data to determine what resources are most needed.

Disruptive Factor

The use of Big Data in the public sector arena promises to be hugely disruptive, however many agencies have not yet realized its potential.  By extracting insights derived from the data, the City of Buffalo is using a targeted data driven approach to identifying neighborhoods most in need to direct the deployment of the appropriate resources. Pooling man power and in-kind services from federal, state and local government and community groups/non-profits, puts forward a new innovative model of an inter-department and inter-agency collaboration for cost-effective public sector service delivery.

Shining Moment

The City of Buffalo Clean Sweeps program has made a great impact on the City and its citizens – by using non-traditional/innovative approaches to improve the overall quality of life and also promote a sense of community engagement and empowerment.

Using cable television, video footage from the Clean Sweeps are broadcasted, creating a live reality TV program that has become one of the most popular programs viewed in the Buffalo area. The program is used as a crime deterrent and also to show that government has not forsaken its citizens, but is actively working to improve the lives of its citizens. The program also empowers residents to understand that working together with their local government, they are an important force in improving the communities in which they work and live.

About Division of Citizen Services
 
The Division of Citizen Services was created within the Executive Department of the City of Buffalo to establish and maintain a centralized computer based system and procedures for receiving, processing and responding to inquiries, service requests, complaints and suggestions from citizens in a timely, accurate and professional manner. In 2008, Mayor Byron W. Brown created and established the 311 Call and Resolution Center within the Division of Citizen Services. Since then, 311 has served as the  premier centralized response center for recording citizen complaints and allocating service requests to appropriate departments, agencies and other service providers for the City of Buffalo.  In addition to 311, the Division is responsible for creating, managing and implementing other programs such as the Urban Fellows Internship Program; Citizen Corps, an AmeriCorps initiative; Citizens’ Participation Academy; and  Clean Sweeps, an initiative where government and non-profit agencies collaborate in cleanup efforts and the delivery of services and information to impoverished neighborhoods. The Division is on forefront of the City’s efforts to engage the public by providing the residents with multi-channel access to government services and information, thereby increasing transparency and accountability within local government.
 
To learn more, visit http://city-buffalo.com/Home/City_Departments/Citizens_Services