With an estimated population of 8.

5 million people, New York City was the most populous

city in the United States in 2017. With 27,578 inhabitants per square mile, it was also the
country's densest metropolis—New York City's source for government information and non-
emergency services was NYC311. Launched in 2003, New York City 311 is a centralized,
effective, open, collaborative, and all-purposed customer service centre for New York
citizens' access to non-emergency municipal services such as trash collection, graffiti
removal, noise complaints, requests for bus and subway information, transit delays, illegal
parking, and streetlights, The service is always available through a simple call request using
the easy to remember 311 phone number. The service operator can answer calls or redirect
them to information or resources that the citizens need. There is also an available NYC 311
application for Android or iOS operating systems that allow citizens to find government
services or report service requests to 311 easily. In 1996, the city of Baltimore, Maryland,
assisted by a $300,000 federal grant, actually launched the first 311 service as an option to
prevent residents from calling 911 in non-emergencies.

The NYC311 system was designed by the city's Department of Information Technology and
Telecommunications (DoITT) and consulting firm Accenture. One expert explained,
"NYC311 reflects a national trend of cities and counties that view 311 services as an
enterprise customer relationship management (CRM) initiative." NYC311 had 375
employees and spent $27 million on operations in 2003. The 311 services is sometimes
referred to as a commercial customer relationship management (CRM) approach.

Not only did 311 make it easier for New Yorkers to get information from the city—and to file
complaints—but since 2012, with the signing of the "Open Data Law," the city was required
to store all of its public data, including its 311 records, on an accessible public website, NYC
OpenData and to make it also gave the city government more information about what
residents were concerned about. It helped NYC311 keep track of their responses to reported
issues. NYC311 documented each phone call, tweet, text received, along with information on
who was using the service. The city also used 311 data to help allocate annual budgets.