Characterizing 311 System Reactions to a Global Health Emergency

Abstract

Communities are complex, multi-dimensional systems that react to crises in a variety of different ways. Based on the municipal services provided to a community, 311 calls can be used as indicators of the different dimensions of that community’s reaction to a crisis situation. To improve Citizen Relationship Management, municipalities can analyze and even augment their 311 systems to capture specific types of information about an ongoing crisis. New York City did this by adding specific category types and descriptors to their 311 system, in response to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. This paper provides an initial look at the 311 data for New York City and the variety of community behaviors that it is able to capture as a reaction to the pandemic and the associated actions taken by the authorities to respond to the situation.