Why Civic Analytics?

Cities worldwide are having a data and analytics-driven moment, and it’s one that is likely here to stay. Thanks to advances in computing, code-sharing, and mindsets around accessing government data, it has never been a more affordable, accessible or effective time to start harnessing analytics capabilities to improve local government services.

Yet this does not always mean that analytics can be deployed without much effort, as oft-repeated buzzwords like “big data” may sometimes imply. Leery of such promises, some local governments may suspect that the time and cost it takes to undergo analytics efforts is simply not worth it. Others may simply ask: why analytics?   

“It is estimated that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created each year,” Jennifer Bachner, Senior Lecturer at John Hopkins University, notes in her new book Analytics, Policy, and Governance. “In a governance context, the real value of data is the policy implications we can glean from the results of an analysis.” 

Indeed, local governments have been experimenting with a host of strategies and models to find ways, given limited resources, to effectively find that value and implement analytics programs within their cities. New leadership roles and divisions—such as Chief Data Officers and Innovation or Performance Management Offices—barely existed a decade ago, but are now becoming ubiquitous among larger cities.

“Being a data-driven city is about more efficiently and effectively delivering the core services of the city,” former New York Chief Analytics Officer Michael Flowers noted in the 2013 book Beyond Transparency. “Being data-driven is not primarily a challenge of technology; it is a challenge of direction and organizational leadership.”

As no two cities are alike, analytics approaches have differed from city to city. In New York, for example, the city’s Finance Department has used analytics to increase the productivity of auditors reviewing companies thought to be underpaying their taxes.