For more than two decades, beginning with the emergence in the mid-1990s of CompStat in the New York City Police Department, local governments have been using data, combined with accountability and follow-through, to improve public services, leading to improvements in the quality of life for their residents. But in the last few years the acceleration toward more widespread use of complex data analytic techniques has been dizzying, with new programs and futuristic analyses seemingly appearing daily around the country. From local government experiments to university-based centers and book-length treatments, public entities everywhere are thinking about how to better obtain and use data. The White House undertook a 90-day review of big data in 2014 underscoring that “the power of big data … will be equally transformational for states and municipalities,” pointing to New York City’s Office of Data Analytics and Chicago’s SmartData project as examples of some of the most innovative uses of big data to improve service delivery.

Originally published in The Public Law Journal - Spring, 2016.