Reimagine 911
Harvard Day of Service
We’re people-centered problem solvers
Showing that with the mindful use of technology
Government can work well for everyone
Our goal
A resilient government that effectively and equitably serves everyone
Our Values
Listen first
Include those who’ve been excluded
Act with intention
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How we work
Demonstrate what can be done through action
Collect feedback about what works and what doesn’t
Build something small and use it with real people
Our Values
Listen first
Include those who’ve been excluded
Act with intention
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The �Reimagine 911
Project
Our goal
The Reimagine 911 project is focused on helping cities develop more emergency response alternatives by identifying and understanding opportunities visible in the data.
Not All 911 Calls Need Police
50%
of mental crisis calls they receive from 911 can be helped over the phone alone.
1 in 3
Black men born in 2001 will be sent to prison sometime in their lives.
25%
of 911 calls are for crimes in progress. Most are not emergencies that require police.
Send government and community service responders when law enforcement is not needed.
The challenge ahead of us
The availability and uniformity of incident data is essential to knowing when to divert 911 calls.
This is a recurring challenge we heard over and over again through the various workgroups for Transform911, to the dozen plus interviews we had with experts in the field.
This is where you come in…
Data Standardization
Gathering Metadata
… but first
Data Dictionaries
… but first
Two Quick Things…
Stuff to Know About
Our 911 System
Speaking plainly..
911 was originally a tool of racial oppression
911 is a highly decentralized system
Vocab term!
PSAP » Public Safety Answering Point
Aka “call center”
Aka “911 districts”
People call 911 for many, many things - not just emergencies.
There are many 911 stakeholders for each PSAP
911 calls are deployed by many different agencies …so expect a mess.
We’ll need good context for these datasets and city to perform good analysis.
PSAP, Census, and dataset boundaries are arbitrary and may not match up.
Activity 1: �Data Dictionary
Understanding exactly what
The 911 data means
Data Dictionaries
Understanding what the data means
A data dictionary is a collection of descriptions of the data objects or items in a data model for the benefit of programmers and others who need to refer to them. Often a data dictionary is a centralized metadata repository.
911 open data across cities define terms differently.
For example: Location data in San Diego, CA is Address, City, State. But in Seattle, WA, it is Precinct, Sector, Beat.
These are questions we seek to answer when completing the data dictionaries for a city’s 911 data.
https://www.techtarget.com/searchapparchitecture/definition/data-dictionary
Activity 2:
City Metadata
Gathering local context about
the 911 datasets
City Metadata
Gathering local context
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City Metadata
Gathering local context
Group 1: �911 Administrative Structures
City Metadata
Gathering local context
Group 2: �Community Service Programs
Activity 3:
Data Standardization
Helping us make 🍎 to 🍎�comparisons between 911 calls
Data Standardization
Apples-to-apples comparisons
Seattle, WA
Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
APCO
Code
FIRE APARTMENT
MULTI-DWELLING FIRE
RESID FIRE
STRUCTURAL FIRE
Data Standardization
Apples-to-apples comparisons
Data Standardization
Apples-to-apples comparisons
Missing Descriptions
Data Standardization
Apples-to-apples comparisons
Cryptic Inter-Agency Codes
Data Standardization
Apples-to-apples comparisons
Demo Time!