Int. No. 1420-C
By Council Members Matteo, Holden, Ayala, Yeger, Louis, Levin and Ulrich
A Local Law in relation to requiring a study and report on 311 complaints resulting in unconfirmed conditions
Be it enacted by the Council as follows:
Section 1. Reporting on 311 complaints. a. Definitions. For the purposes of this section the following terms have the following meanings:
Covered agency. The term “covered agency” means the department of environmental protection, the department of buildings, the department of health and mental hygiene, the department of sanitation, the police department and any other city agency designated as a covered agency by an office or agency as may be designated by the mayor.
Covered service request. The term “covered service request” means any service request made to the 311 customer service center during the reporting period that was referred to a covered agency.
Reporting period. The term “reporting period” means the period beginning on January 1, 2016 and ending on December 31, 2020.
Unconfirmed condition. The term “unconfirmed condition” means a status assigned to a service request for which there was not enough evidence for an enforcement official from the responding agency to determine whether or not the reported incident occurred, or a service request for which the reported condition was not found by an enforcement official from the responding agency. Such term does not include a service request for which the responding agency was unable to investigate the reported incident or condition because such official was denied access to private property.
b. An office or agency designated by the mayor shall collaborate with each covered agency to conduct a study of all covered service requests to determine the proportion of such service requests that were made anonymously and whether anonymous covered service requests were more likely to result in unconfirmed conditions than were other covered service requests. Such study shall also examine anonymous covered service requests to identify patterns of service requests resulting in unconfirmed conditions against specific private properties or residences, if any.
c. No later than December 1, 2021, the office or agency designated by the mayor to conduct the study required by subdivision b of this section shall submit to the council, and post conspicuously on its website, a report summarizing the findings of such study. Such report shall include recommendations, based on such study, regarding the types of service requests for which agencies should allow anonymous service requests. Such report shall not contain personally identifying information.
§ 2. This local law takes effect immediately.
JG/cjm
LS # 7628
01/20/2021