Complexity and Social Networks Blog: Overview of U.S. and Canadian 311 city and county service center

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27 September 2007

Overview of U.S. and Canadian 311 city and county service center

I have created a mash-up of the U.S. and Canadian 311 projects (last update: 9/26/07) which I would like to share with you. There are currently around 70 service centers (311) in the U.S.. Most of the 311 projects have been realized on the municipal level and in most of the U.S. biggest cities. While 11 countys have decided to offer 311, not all of them are multi-jurisdictional, that is information and services from the municipalities within a county are not integrated. Furthermore, 311 services can have various levels of sophistication and may either be operated by the police department or by newly generated 311 service units/departments.

The first city to test 311 was Baltimore in 1996, however, it was Chicago which used 311 in 1999 in a much broader way for public service provision, city management and accountability. The City of Chicago's 311 still is the first place to visit and learn from for many elected officials and public managers. Today, New York City is the biggest 311 implementation in the U.S. (size of the service center/ population served) and probably the most well known implementation due to the global media coverage it received. With a pop of approx. 5400 Alaska's City of Bethel is the smallest place to use the number.

Except for the City of Somverille none of the cities in Massachusetts have implemented 311. Given the close proximity of cities in the greater Boston metro area its really hard to understand from a citizen's perspective why there couldn't be a single 311 solution for the whole area. After all, there would be around 3.6 million people less to serve than in NYC and there should be many information redundancies.

View Larger Map

Blue = Municipal 311 (Realized)
Red = County 311 (Realized)
Yellow = Planning or implementation stage
Green = 311 in Canada

If you know about new 311 projects please email me.

Posted by Alexander Schellong at September 27, 2007 12:05 AM

Comments

The Bethel 311 works well. It serves basically as the switchboard to the police department and dog catcher. I can't speak for the dispatchers at the other end and whether it works well for them. They are the real key, especially with an understaffed emergency response department. They do good work.

Bethel is currently around 5200-5500 folks or fewer, *maybe* 6262 in the summer when fishing was good. Officially, we never got over 5800 folks.

>>> >>>>
From Alexander: Thx. I have changed the info accordingly.

Posted by: mpb at September 27, 2007 4:17 PM

The City of Sacramento, in California is in the preliminary phases of CRM implementation. We hope to offer 311 services to our customers by the Summer of 2008. Our goal will be to provide one stop shopping, reduce the number of misdirected calls and provide our city leaders with quality information about what is happening in Sacramento in real time.

Posted by: Gina Knepp at September 28, 2007 12:38 PM

RE: Gina

Thanks for the info. I updated the map accordingly. Is this your only project or are you following a broader customer service strategy? How are you planning to inform city leaders with quality information? Which ICT solution did you pick? Finally, is 311 a new unit/department or part of an existing department?

Posted by: Alexander Schellong at September 28, 2007 1:57 PM

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Overview of U.S. and Canadian 311 city and county service center

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