Philadelphia, PA– Today, Philly311 announced that Philadelphians can now view visualizations (maps and charts) and a full dataset of all 311 service and information requests. The dataset includes all requests to Philly311 since December 2014 through all possible submission channels, including the 311 app, calls, walk-ins, emails, the 311 website and social media. This release builds on the city’s Open Data initiative to share City-collected data with the public in easy to use and free formats. Among the 15 datasets released so far this year are community health indicators, police investigations of vehicles and pedestrians, and employee salaries.
“It is a top priority of this administration to ensure that everyone, in every neighborhood, has equal access to City services and information, said Mayor Kenney. “The City is committed to using new technology to build transparency and to improve service. We expect this data release will improve the way the public interacts with Philly311 and make City government more accessible to everyone.”
The dataset and accompanying visualisations illustrate how many requests were made on specific days, the city departments which receive the most requests, what services are requested as well as requests by neighborhood. Residents can even drill down to their specific block and see whether an issue near their house has already been submitted for service.
“Philly311 opens over 150,000 service tickets and answers over 650,000 questions a year. We consider releasing this information and making it easy to understand as one more way that we provide a service to Philadelphians. The more we as a community can come up with accessible data, the more we can create solutions to complex problems,” said Tim Thornton, Director of Philly311.
In alignment with the City of Philadelphia’s goal to become more accountable and accessible, the Office of Open Data & Digital Transformation has worked with the long-standing Geodata Services Group in the Office of Innovation and Technology to release over 200 open datasets to the public since 2012.
“Philly311 data is an important element in analyzing conditions that impact quality of life in neighborhoods. It’s from 311 requests that city officials, and now the public, can quantify the geographic intensity and distribution of problems like illegal dumping and understand these incidents both over time and in a context of crime, land use, city investments, etc., in the same area.” said Mark Wheeler, Chief Geographic Information Officer.
The dataset includes two main data points – requests for services or information. A service request represents a need that the City government would fulfill, like getting a pothole fixed, cleaning a water inlet, dealing with graffiti removal, inspecting a dangerous building or following up on an abandoned vehicle. The bulk of requests – approximately 80% – fall into the second category of ‘information’ and represents a question posed that 311 answers or refers the individual to the appropriate department.
Within the dataset, a ‘status’ field, updated by the department handling the requests, provides the latest status of the request. The teams working on this release removed personal information of the individual reporting the issue to protect their privacy, and are working to add additional information to each request, such as details about its current status.
The data can be can be accessed at www.opendataphilly.org.