Cities should advertise their innovations to gain allies, says Baltimore mayor

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh doesn’t want to innovate in a vacuum.

“[Innovative technologies] are great, but the question should be — how do you make sure that the public knows that these innovations are taking place?” Pugh says in a video interview filmed at the Public Sector Innovation Summit presented by VMware and produced by FedScoop and StateScoop.

Pugh says cities need to engage departments within government, as well as community leaders outside of government in the strategic planning process for innovative technologies and ideas.

“With that plan comes the bringing together of really good organizations throughout your own departments of community leaders to advance in the direction you want to go,” Pugh says.

The mayor pointed to two programs within city government that follow that model — the city police department’s strategic decision support centers as well as Department of Public Works’ smart trash cans that send a notification to department staff when they reach capacity.

“We were able to discover some areas that we knew we needed innovation, like our police department for example,” Pugh says. “I’m really proud of our strategic decision centers, because they allow us to almost predict where crime can occur.”

Pugh on virtualization’s impact on government operations:

Pugh on the move to the cloud:

Pugh on the role of cybersecurity in city government:

This video was filmed December 4, 2018, at the Public Sector Innovation Summit, presented by VMware and produced by FedScoop and StateScoop.