Thursday, July 10, 2014

Stringer tries technology to prevent lawsuits

From the NY Times:

New York City two years ago more than doubled its $1.45 million budget for pruning trees, adding $2 million after a spate of injuries and deaths caused by falling tree limbs in parks and along city streets.

Now the city comptroller’s office says it has developed a way to identify potential problem spots much sooner and provide city agencies with “an early warning system” to help them improve services “and make our city safer,” whether the problem is falling tree limbs, unfilled potholes, medical malpractice or civil rights violations by the police.

The initiative, called ClaimStat, stems from a database of thousands of claims that are made against the city by people who seek compensation for injuries they say were the city’s fault.

ClaimStat was modeled after the New York Police Department’s renowned CompStat program, in which police commanders use computers to map and respond to patterns of criminal activity, the comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, said in a report to be issued by his office on Wednesday.

“One of the things, I think, that was significant about CompStat is that it sort of challenged the notion that nothing could be done about rising crime,” Mr. Stringer, a Democrat elected to his job last year, said in a phone interview. “So rising claims don’t have to be inevitable, just like crime doesn’t have to be inevitable,” he added.

ClaimStat, his office said in a statement, would identify patterns in claims made against the city to “highlight both troubling trends and best practices.”

It was unclear on Tuesday how various city agencies would use the data.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you Scott and the Parks Dept.

Our small Park at 67 Avenue and Austin Street had all of the broken tree limbs cut down from a very large and tall tree on a very hot day. Job well done.

JH

Anonymous said...

Well, considering that "The Boys From Ronkonkoma" AKA: NYPD are consistently at the top of the list for lawsuits, one might start with training them to better regard the people whose taxes pay their salaries.

Anonymous said...

Here's how you reduce liability. When you receive a 311 complaint for a dead tree, hanging branch, pothole etc. you address it and fix it instead of ignoring it and marking it unfounded.

Anonymous said...

These tree trimming maniacs are out of control. I hope they're not paid by the # of trees butchered.

They've ruined Bowne Park. Hope they didn't kill too many baby squirrels, raccoons and possums in the process. But they probably did - they just butchered everything on about 4 weekends and probably made triple time and a half.

This just reeks of corruption - we need a federal investigation of the Dept. of Parks!

Anonymous said...

Train the NYPD better ? No amount of training can remove the criminal nature of the NYPD. Take away the navy blue uniform, the boots, the equipment etc.... and look at an "officer" they are barely human but totally thug scum.

Most cops are walking lawsuits waiting to happen.

Anonymous said...

What city agency or department is responsible for trees that block stop signs?

I've seen several accidents over the past year where low hanging branches impair a drivers view of stop signs.

I've reported a couple of these trees to 311 but nothing has been done in the way of trimming. I guess someone will have to be seriously injured before the city acts.

Anonymous said...

Investigate the Dept. of Parks?

1. Every Mayor before this Mayor has CUT their Budget and they have not had a contract for five years (no raises in 5 years).

2. Check how much territory they have to cover in All the boroughs.

3. How much work can you get done with NO workers? Guess you believe in slave labor.

This poster has no relation or friends working for the Parks Dept. Just someone who cares about her City.