The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) pushed out a new report, “Smart Cities: Technologies and Policy Options to Enhance Services and Transparency.” US Ignite’s co-founder and CTO, Glenn Ricart contributed toward this research effort. The report examines three important aspects of smart cities:
- How smart technologies can impact a city’s ability to deliver services
- The benefits and challenges of using smart technologies
- Policy options that could help enhance the benefits or mitigate the challenges of using smart technologies.
As more cities begin to use smart city technologies, like license plate readers, gunshot detectors, and optical sensors, it becomes more important to understand the good and concerning aspects of these smart tools. The new GAO report explores how cities use smart technologies, focusing on law enforcement and transportation services. Through research, interviews, convenings, and site visits, GAO identified and analyzed the benefits and challenges of leveraging smart city technology. Based on the findings, the report offers key policy recommendations to help local governments navigate the smart city space:
- Facilitate improved collaboration to evaluate technology use
- Increase transparency when procuring and using smart technologies
- Develop and share effective data governance practices or standards
Download the report now to dive into the findings and recommendations.