Interview Questions for Melissa Schigoda, Director of the Performance and Accountability Office in New Orleans
In the vibrant city of New Orleans, Louisiana, the implementation of data-driven analytics programs within municipal agencies has brought about significant improvements in emergency and infrastructure management, public safety, and social services. However, these initiatives have also encountered complex governance, ethical, technical, and environmental challenges.
Impact
New Orleans has made strides in leveraging data analytics for emergency and infrastructure management. Advanced evacuation procedures, transit routing adjustments, and the maintenance and operation of drainage pumps have been implemented to manage flood risks, all supported by data on environmental conditions and service outages.
Analytics initiatives have also bolstered public safety improvements, with the city adopting or considering advanced technologies like live facial recognition surveillance. This technology, operated by a nonprofit in coordination with the police department, aims to improve law enforcement effectiveness by identifying suspects in real time.
There has been a shift towards using data to guide social service responses, such as addressing homelessness and substance abuse, rather than relying solely on police intervention. This approach improves outcomes by connecting individuals to appropriate services based on risk analytics and case management data.
Challenges
Despite the progress, several barriers persist. Governance and cross-sector collaboration difficulties are major challenges, with municipal agencies facing hurdles in aligning infrastructure, policy, and stakeholder interests to build a cohesive vision and coordinated action for data-driven initiatives.
Privacy and civil liberties concerns arise, particularly around technologies like facial recognition, where debates over surveillance ethics, compliance with state laws, and community trust complicate deployment and public acceptance.
Technical and operational challenges remain in maintaining and integrating data systems for emergency services. The need for specialized staff, updated infrastructure, and reliable analytics for urgent event planning and response is highlighted, particularly in the context of utility outage analytics and emergency communication plans.
Environmental challenges such as increasing flood frequency and extreme heat require analytics systems to be adaptable and sophisticated to forecast, respond to, and mitigate these risks effectively.
Navigating Challenges
City department staff are often overextended, making it challenging to carve out time for analytics projects. However, targeted analytics projects have been used to address stickier problems departments faced, such as prioritizing backlogs or most efficiently targeting limited resources.
Melissa Schigoda, a key figure in New Orleans' data analytics journey, emphasizes the importance of building a data culture among city employees to significantly increase the potential impact of data and analytics initiatives. Schigoda, who's career trajectory was influenced by Hurricane Katrina, has worked with various data-focused organisations in New Orleans, including Tulane's Center for Public Service, a local data think tank called the Data Center, and Brookings.
Schigoda has led or partnered on data analytics programs such as ResultsNOLA and ComSTAT in New Orleans, and she believes that the What Works Cities criteria can help cities compare their data and analytics practices to those of other cities. These criteria can provide valuable insights and guidance for cities starting their data and analytics journey.
Schigoda also highlights that data and analytics have helped city leaders respond to the pandemic by informing policy decisions and building support for tough measures. The public dashboard with key covid-19 measures, set up to help everyone understand the city's trend and build support for decisions, is a testament to this.
Despite the challenges, New Orleans demonstrates how municipal agencies can enhance resilience, public safety, and social services through data analytics. The city serves as a model for other cities embarking on their data-driven transformation journey, showcasing both the potential benefits and the complexities involved.
- The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, is navigating the challenges of a data-and-cloud-computing transformation through targeted analytics projects, such as Prioritizing backlogs or most efficiently targeting limited resources.
- Melissa Schigoda, a key figure in New Orleans' data analytics journey, advocates for building a data culture among city employees to increase the potential impact of data and analytics initiatives.
- Schigoda believes that the What Works Cities criteria can help cities compare their data and analytics practices to those of other cities, providing valuable insights and guidance for cities starting their data and analytics journey.
- Data analytics have helped city leaders in New Orleans respond to the pandemic by informing policy decisions and building support for tough measures, as demonstrated by the public dashboard with key covid-19 measures.
