How GIS could create a 'smarter way of governing'

Source: Smart Cities Dive Author: Chris Teale Published Jan. 8 2020

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley told Smart Cities Dive mapping increases transparency and helps meet goals, while also building trust.

Trust in some levels of government is at an all-time low, but if leaders are more open and transparent, and make more data-driven decisions, they can regain public confidence.

That's according to former Maryland Gov. and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, whose new book, "Smarter Government: How to Govern for Results in the Information Age," recalls his efforts to use mapping with geographic information system (GIS) to set targets, find problems and monitor progress for government employees.

And as cities become more reliant on technology, O'Malley argued it is no longer possible for leaders to not be transparent.

"In the information age, when everybody knows things at the same time as the leader, the place for the situational advantage for the leader is not at the top of that pyramid of command and control," O'Malley told Smart Cities Dive in a recent interview. "It's at the center of the collaborative circle, as close to the latest emerging truth as possible."

O'Malley said in the book he learned of this data-driven approach to government while a member of the Baltimore City Council, and looked in "awe and envy" at the New York Police Department's (NYPD) CompStat initiative using GIS to identify and help reduce spikes in crime in specific areas.

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