WHITE PLAINS, NY — For the tenth time and third consecutive year, Westchester County has been named one of the top 10 digital counties in the United States by the Center for Digital Government and the National Association of Counties.
“I am proud that Westchester County continues to be recognized for leveraging technology to deliver efficient and effective services to all of our residents,” said Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino. “The results delivered by our technology team go a long way toward saving taxpayer money at every level of local government and they deserve our thanks.”
Astorino said John McCaffrey, Westchester County’s Chief Information Officer, and the entire Department of Information Technology (DoIT) staff, deserve special mention not only for this year’s results but also for being named to the list of top digital counties 10 times since 2005.
The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute focused on technology policies and best practices in state and local government. Along with the National Association of Counties, they invited thousands of counties to participate in the 2015 Digital Counties Survey, which considered citizen engagement, policy, operations, and technology and data. Westchester County finished ninth.
Over the last year, Westchester has redesigned the county Web site to be more mobile responsive, and launched Homeseeker, a comprehensive one-stop resource for anyone looking to buy or sell fair and affordable housing.
Additionally, the Center for Digital Government cited:
· REACH Westchester, an automated application system that has transformed the county’s paper recertification process for Temporary Assistance customers into a more efficient, streamlined process. This innovative process enables customers to complete their recertification interview independently through the use of a user-friendly, in-office kiosk. REACH Westchester saves county taxpayers more than $2 million annually.
· The Criminal Justice Data Warehouse, an innovative investigative tool that allows local and state law enforcement, including the New York State Police Department and New York State Division of Parole, to quickly search over a million data entries from agencies throughout the county to track down suspects and get them off the street. The database includes records from local and county police, the county jail and probation departments, as well as pistol permits and taxi and limousine records.
· A growing number of shared services to municipalities and schools offered by the Westchester County Department of Information Technology, such as digital printing, network and office systems services, geographic information systems (GIS), emergency support and no-cost licenses to cybersecurity software.
· The Westchester Telecom Network reaffirms Westchester’s position as a premier business location. Businesses enjoy the reliability and quality of an end-to-end fiber-based network that improves telecommunications transmission quality and sophistication while also reducing overall telecom costs.\
