The City of Wichita has been recognized nationally for leading efforts related to technology, community engagement and transparency. On Thursday at the National League of Cities Conference in Nashville, the Center for Digital Government awarded Wichita 4th place in the 2015 Digital Cities Survey competition, which honors cities using technology to improve services and boost efficiencies. Wichita’s City government was recognized for:

• The Information Technology Department’s work with two Wichita State University students to develop a citizen reporting app, Wichita Report, a 311-style tool.
• A partnership with the local Code for America brigade to come up with a strategic open data program designed to create apps.
• A new snowplow tracking site which helps residents navigate streets by tracking and mapping the paths of snow-clearing vehicles;
• And other improvements which include a streamlined e-citation system for law enforcement and high-speed fiber that runs through the city’s storm sewer system. The connectivity boost will help Wichita effectively transmit police body-camera video to its cloud provider that will store the footage from field officers’ cameras.

Wichita tied for 4th with Seattle (see winning cities here: http://tinyurl.com/qx7pmer).

"I'm really proud of the innovation efforts of our team, both staff and policy makers," said Mayor Longwell, noting Wichita competed in the category of large cities with population above 250,000. “It's nice to share this award with other cities that have traditionally been seen as high tech cities.”

“The governments in this year’s survey are using cloud services, data analytics and mobile apps - among other technologies - to help citizens interact with government more easily than ever before,” said Todd Sander, executive director of the Center for Digital Government. “These cities are true innovators.”

Now in its 15th year, the Digital Cities Survey is part of the Center for Digital Government’s Digital Communities program, which focuses on collaboration among cities, counties and regions. Open to all U.S. cities, the survey focuses on ten initiatives across four categories: citizen engagement, policy, operations, and technology and data. Responses are reviewed and judged based on a set of criteria and how well the cities implemented these services across the entire city.