Smart cities: Technologies and policy options to enhance services and transparency

Cities use smart technologies to improve transportation and law enforcement services. Smart transportation systems include technologies that can be used to detect the number and speed of vehicles traveling along roadways. Data from these technologies generally feed into a transportation management center, which enables traffic managers to analyze this information. Smart technologies that support traffic management use data collected from roadside sensors and sensors within vehicles.

Some cities use automatic license plate readers and acoustic gunshot detection systems to support law enforcement operations. Among other uses, automatic license plate readers can be used to cross reference images of license plates with lists of wanted vehicles. When a match is identified, police can be dispatched to the vehicle’s location. Similarly, acoustic gunshot detection systems can pinpoint gunfire location.

City officials stated that smart technologies can benefit their delivery of transportation and law enforcement services. However, assessments of benefits are difficult to develop. Researchers stated that agencies may use multiple law enforcement or transportation technologies, making any attribution of effectiveness for individual technologies difficult. For example, Houston TranStar officials stated that its operational success can be attributed to technologies and personnel and that any benefits cannot be attributed to any single technology. Similarly, a law enforcement official stated that in a large city, it can be difficult to expand the use of technologies for law enforcement throughout the city. For example, acoustic gunshot detection systems may not reduce gun crime in the city but only shift it to another area.

Experts stated that cities generally lack transparency on smart technologies’ intended use because individuals are told of potential benefits but not potential risks. These experts said that, as a result, individuals and communities often have little knowledge about how smart technologies function or the risk they may face from misuse of their data. Research has found that smart technology data may be used to identify individuals, which increases the potential for scams and can result in economic harms such as increased insurance costs. Experts stated that individuals should ideally be able to consent to use of their data. However, absent conditions for individuals to provide consent, local elected representatives may have a role in approving the use of smart technologies that collect data on individuals. These officials could, for example, establish privacy advisory boards and support use of data governance practices in cities’ contracts with vendors.

GAO identified three policy options, in addition to the status quo, that may help with implementation of smart city technologies. The purpose of these options is to provide policymakers—who may include Congress, federal agencies, state and local governments, academia, industry, and other interested groups—with a broader base of information for decision-making.

Read more at GAO