Citistat

2004 Winner -- City of Baltimore, Maryland

One of the early and most enduring award winners is the
crime tracking program called Compstat, which has been replicated in police departments around the country over the past decade. It started in New York City as a data tracking tool that more effectively deploys police units to specific areas
of concern in the city, allowing officials to more efficiently use their resources. In 1999, the City of Baltimore rolled out its
own expanded version called CitiStat, which tracked employee hours, overtime, and absenteeism in real time across all city departments. This program enabled the mayor's office to crack down on chronic absenteeism and save the city more than
$13 million in the first year alone. Based on its success, Baltimore now uses CitiStat to gather and measure a wide array of performance indicators, such as response times for things like pothole abatement, trash collection, and snow removal, as well as the prevalence of problems such as illegal dumping, vacant buildings, and sewage overflows. The information is analyzed with the assistance of computerized
databases and geographic mapping to zero in on areas of underperformance. Managers from each city department
then meet with the mayor's office every two weeks to answer
questions about their results. This approach has produced
dramatic improvements in city services and efficiency, with savings of $350 million since its inception. The program
has been so successful, at least 11 other U.S. cities have adopted the CitiStat approach, and in 2004, CitiStat was an Innovations in American Government Award winner.