New York City Launches Wireless-Equipped Street Inspectors

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg yesterday launched the Street Conditions Observation Unit (SCOUT), a new team of inspectors in the Mayor's Office of Operations whose mission is to drive every city street once per month and report conditions that negatively impact quality of life to 311. Reports transmitted from the SCOUT inspectors' hand-held devices will enter the 311 system and be routed to the relevant agency for appropriate corrective action -- just as when a New Yorker calls 311. The goal of the SCOUT program is to improve of street-level quality of life in city neighborhoods and to further the responsiveness of city government to quality of life conditions. The SCOUT program will be administered by the Mayor's Office of Operations, which also administers the city's scorecard rating system that recently gave the City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) its highest ever rating for streets that are "acceptably clean," 94.3 percent. At the announcement, held at the Heckscher Playground in Brooklyn, the mayor also welcomed a donation of paint to the Mayor's Paint Program from Benjamin Moore Paints.

"This new team, equipped with GPS technology, will bring an extra set of eyes to our city streets," said Bloomberg. "Whenever I'm driving through the city and I see a pothole or garbage on the street, I'll pick up the phone and report the problem to 311, just like thousands of citizens do every day. Now we'll deploy a team of veteran city workers to do the same, armed with new technology and their knowledge of quality of life concerns in our city."

SCOUT Inspectors will use GPS-enabled hand-held devices specially programmed to report the conditions they observe. When the SCOUT team is fully operational, 15 inspectors will drive three-wheeled scooters and travel every city street once per month. The same off-the-shelf software used by large corporations will take the reports transmitted from the hand-held devices and enter them into the 311 system as if the relevant information had just been taken from a 311 Call Center representative. For SCOUT inspector reports, information on who made the complaint will remain anonymous.

The SCOUT Inspectors will observe and report to 311 conditions including litter or debris on the sidewalk; illegal dumping; overflowing litter baskets; street potholes; graffiti on buildings; missing traffic signs; dangling, or fallen over traffic signs; open fire hydrants; fallen over newspaper boxes; parks property damage; bus shelters damaged; and sidewalk shed ads. These conditions will be reported to the appropriate agency for corrective action, including the Mayor's Community Assistance Unit, Department of Sanitation, Department of Transportation, Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Buildings and the Department of Parks and Recreation.