Greetings and Salutations,
If you have been following my E-governance and Law Enforcement blog, you know we are starting to make strides towards getting our agency up and running in the "e-everything" world. When I blogged last week, we started to address factors to consider prior to getting our agency online. However, in the course of my study of public administration, I think it is important that we take a look at some real life experiences with those who have walked down this path before us and have encouraging, yet cautionary advice for those who would do the same. This week, I want to take a brief overview of the book
Citizenville authored by Gavin Newsome who is currently and most notably the Lieutenant Governor of the State of California.
Citizenville is a fairly light read about the trials and tribulations of revolutionizing government to function in the digital age and how to get citizens involved in their government.
Gavin Newsome seems to strike at the heart of the issue that government is stuck in the past with outdated thinking, but American citizens can reshape their government to make it better. This is the very thing I have been discussing in my blog, but have narrowed my issue to law enforcement.
Citizenville covers eleven chapters that takes a look back, shows the current state of affairs, and then projects outward to what is ahead. The book covers some issues that range from Newsome's take on Wikileaks to the controversy surrounding public figures.
In perhaps one of my favorite chapters, "Living in a Glass House," Newsome addresses the dirty truth about being a public figure and how the expectations of privacy seems to be a thing of the past. When Newsome was the mayor of San Francisco, California, it appeared that he wanted to be as open and as transparent as possible. As I discussed in a prior blog, transparency is the ultimate goal of e-government. Unfortunately what the good mayor experienced was people using open information for evil and not for good. Newsome tells of his creation in 2004 of SF Stat which was one of the most comprehensive and transparent reporting of government activity at that time. Instead of citizens saying, "This is great and open," it was used to criticize and attack the mayor which ultimately ruined morale of the government employees and led to a state where government was afraid to put information "out there."
You can't win for losing and will be criticized as the image to the left here suggests about Newsome. I am here to say that
absolutely people will always use information for their own agenda, but we as government have to suck it up and do what is right and be prepared to explain our position. One lesson I took away from Gavin Newsome's experience is that when putting out something like statistical information about your agency, put it into context. For example, if you have increase overtime for law enforcement officers in relation to an uptick in crime, tell the people what is going on. Be the first to provide the information and put it into context or else like we say in Miranda warnings, "it will be used against you in court!"
Another key factor in
Citizenville is that even though we are modernizing our agency, we are still competing for stakeholders of our services.
Keep in mind, law enforcement is but one aspect of government, but people can make choices. If you are a police chief, you are answerable usually to a mayor, commissioner, or city manager. You are competing against yourself to keep your job because you work at will. Remember,
Citizenville encourages people to interact with their government and if your residents are unhappy, they can and will voice their concerns. Would it not be better for the people to express their concerns to you directly through e-government where you can address the issue rather than hear about it at a commission meeting? If you are a sheriff, you are answerable directly to the voters as it is a constitutional office. Would you not want to know how you are doing through e-government before finding out about it at the next election? Yet countless times, we in government bury our heads in the sand and do just enough to get by.
Perhaps the greatest point Newsome makes in
Citizenville is that people nowadays are always online. I am over 40 years old so I can remember the days when government meant standing in a line somewhere to get a service. Today's American does not wait for anything because everything is available online at the speed of light. Newsome brought the City of San Francisco out of the past and into the cutting edge of the future. Granted, Gavin Newsome was the youngest mayor elected there in over one hundred years, so his youthful naiveté I'm sure played a role. However, if he could see that everything everywhere was going digital, then younger people who only know fast, faster, and instantaneous can see it too. I actually liked
Citizenville because if you are an older citizen, you can appreciate Newsome's explanation of the change. If you are a younger citizen, you can appreciate the direction we are headed. As for us and our agency, we can use
Citizenville as a guide. It does not matter that it addresses city government because a law enforcement agency is exactly that, a small city in its own right. Let's be that next great one!
Citizenville for me ranks 4.5 out of 5 stars! It was published in 2013 by The Penguin Press.
~ Gary
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