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Sugar Land, Texas, USA

Prioritizing Evaluations to Know What Works

Project Type:
High-Performing Government, Community Engagement

At a Glance

69 city employees have completed the Rigorous Methods 101 or Program Evaluations courses.

The City has completed five program evaluations, all detailed in the public evidence-based clearinghouse.

Narrative

In Sugar Land, a city of about 110,000 people outside of Houston, the government makes its commitment to evidence-based governance easy to find. Residents can visit the City’s online clearinghouse, which summarizes evaluations conducted in-house to guide programs, investments and strategic decisions. In 2025, Sugar Land established an evaluation policy that requires all city programs to align with the strategic plan, define measurable outcomes and apply rigorous principles when assessing program effectiveness.

One evaluation focused on a common Sugar Land pest: mosquitoes. The City completed one of the most rigorous evaluation types, a randomized controlled trial (RCT), to assess the effectiveness of mosquito spraying across the City. The evaluation’s findings might surprise some people: Across all measures — including mosquito counts, species diversity and comparison to baseline conditions — spray frequency did not significantly reduce mosquito populations. This is an important finding for City Hall: It allows the Public Works Department to save resources and has kickstarted a partnership with the Office of Data and Innovation to explore more potent mosquito control strategies.

This is just one example of how Sugar Land’s comprehensive program alignment and evaluation policy is helping to improve services. The goal is to ensure that every program supports Sugar Land’s long-term priorities and is accountable for results. All pilot programs must undergo evaluation before they can become permanent. For existing programs, the City has adopted a phased approach, prioritizing those with greater impacts on the community. 

Because evaluations require specific knowledge and capacity from city staff, Sugar Land has invested in training and education. Nearly 70 employees have completed the City’s evaluation-related courses. To understand if these courses are equipping staff with meaningful skills to evaluate programs using rigorous methods, the City conducts pre- and post-course assessments. The average increase in staff confidence related to evaluations after completing a course is substantial: 59%.

Policy development, staff empowerment, rigorous evaluations and transparency — the City of Sugar Land has pushed itself forward since earning Silver Certification. It all adds up to a culture in which data and evidence are essential tools for making positive change to improve the lives of residents.  

Cities Previous Certification

2025 Gold Certification
Where Data and Curb Appeal Aim to Make a Stronger City
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Sugar Land, Texas, USA

At a Glance

Has a goal of evaluating 100% of City programs, all detailed in the public evidence-based clearinghouse.

Used the Neighborhood Health Report, which included GIS data on population stagnation, aging housing and code violations, to create a home renovation program which targeted investments of over $2.7 million to upgrade 166 Sugar Land homes

Transforming procurement by shifting from prescriptive, compliance-focused contracts to outcome-based agreements with clear performance metrics and impact.

City Certifications

Prioritizing Evaluations to Know What Works

Project Type:
Community Engagement, High-Performing Government
Read The Story

Where Data and Curb Appeal Aim to Make a Stronger City

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Health and Wellbeing, High-Performing Government
Read The Story

Ottawa, Canada

Ottawa’s Digital Solution to Increasing Housing Supply

Project Type:
Housing, Infrastructure and Utilities, Technology

At a Glance

Ottawa’s digital twin helps speed up approvals by integrating multiple data sources to show how proposed developments align with neighborhoods, zoning and building codes.

$300,000 estimated annual savings in staff time through the digital twin.

Improving homelessness data collection and reporting, reducing the initial data cleanup time from two months to one hour.

More than 1,000 students have participated in CityStudio Ottawa, a partnership that connects university students with city staff to develop solutions to community challenges.

The City of Ottawa is ready to build.

Driven by a rapidly growing population — 10% increase since 2020 — Ottawa’s housing is under strain and leaders are going all in to ensure stable, safe and affordable housing for the City’s 1.2 million residents.

As of November 2025, new housing construction was up 22% from 2024, but thousands of homes will need to be built to alleviate affordability challenges. To do this, the City is reducing barriers to new construction, making development easier and faster by simplifying regulations, lowering fees and charges, and introducing a new zoning bylaw.

“Urban challenges demand connected solutions — Ottawa’s digital twin brings planning, policy, infrastructure and operations together into one intelligent platform, powering housing, mobility and resilience for a truly smart city.’”

Randal Rodger, Program Manager, Geospatial Analytics, Technology and Solutions

Ottawa isn’t the only city enacting sweeping changes to increase housing supply, but it is one of a few cities with a state-of-the-art digital twin supporting its housing goals. The digital twin is a highly detailed, interactive digital replica of Ottawa’s buildings and infrastructure. It has every streetlight, sewer pipe and sidewalk. Every city tree at scale.

Launched in early 2024 in conjunction with a new zoning bylaw, the digital twin helps residents better visualize how policy changes affect neighborhoods by shifting from static maps to an interactive 3D zoning viewer. For instance, residents can now see how new maximum building heights would look on their street, allowing them to better understand the proposed zoning and engage with the City.

It’s also a game-changer for development.

Ottawa’s digital twin combines aerial imagery, LiDAR point clouds (3D sets of laser-generated spatial points), 360° street-level photos, zoning and policy data, utility networks and more, into an intelligent platform. This isn’t a static map — it’s a predictive engine delivering real-time insights for planning, development and city operations.

By providing planners and policymakers with real-time, integrated data, the digital twin streamlines housing development decisions. Through the O-Twin Viewer platform, city staff can quickly assess how proposed developments align with neighborhoods, zoning and building codes without relying on manual analyses or static maps. It also offers tools tailored for urban planning and development, including AI-powered scenario modeling, development sightline analysis and sun/shadow analysis. An AI chatbot to assist planners with the new zoning bylaw is in development, along with AI-powered solutions for building code compliance and permit approvals.

Beyond housing, the digital twin has wide-ranging benefits: The City is using machine learning to identify and catalogue its physical assets, such as street signs and light poles. The digital twin also supports emergency response, flood mapping, solar rooftop analysis, heat island studies and water rate planning, to name a few.

The digital twin isn’t just an example of cutting-edge technology, it is a pioneering tool to make city planning more accessible, efficient and cost-effective — with the ultimate goal of ensuring Ottawans can live, work, play and thrive in Canada’s capital city.

Image Courtesy of the City of Ottawa
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Marinilla, Colombia

Lowering Barriers to Mental Health Support

Project Type:
Communications, Community Engagement, Health and Wellbeing

At a Glance

Mental health services were expanded through the implementation of mobile “listening centers” where residents can go to speak with a psychologist and obtain referrals to specialized services.

Specific mental health assessments and interventions were implemented in educational institutions, contributing to a 53% reduction in suicide attempts between 2024 and 2025, from 21 attempts per 100,000 students to 10.

Municipal data was consolidated into 30 operational dashboards that integrate quantitative and qualitative indicators to guide decision making.

The “Marinilla in Data” strategy, developed with the support of What Works Cities, helps residents understand and use public data so they can participate in decision making.

Faced with the mental health crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, municipal leaders in Marinilla developed an innovative idea. Instead of requiring residents to seek psychological support on their own, the city would bring mental health services to them.

Marinilla is a city of approximately 70,000 inhabitants, encompassing a small urban core and surrounding rural areas, not far from Medellín in the Antioquia region. Beginning in 2024, municipal leaders launched one of the mayor’s flagship initiatives: mobile “listening centers” located in schools, churches, and other frequently visited places, in addition to regular locations at city hall and two health centers.

Image courtesy of the City of Marinilla.

“Many leaders believe they know everything, but we must make decisions that truly improve people’s lives. Data-driven decisions are essential. Data allows for a more efficient allocation of resources, helps prioritize investments, and increases public trust. Ultimately, it contributes to greater happiness for the people.”

Mayor Julio Cesar Serna Gómez

“We have developed a culture of data use, which has allowed us to improve response times, prioritize decisions and determine where to invest resources.”

Mayor Julio Cesar Serna Gómez

Across the city, the rate of attempted suicides decreased by 38% between 2024 and 2025, from 86 attempts per 100,000 inhabitants to 53.

At these centers, residents of all ages can schedule an appointment to speak with a professional psychologist or drop in without an appointment. Residents interested in psychological support but not yet ready to talk can leave a note and contact information in an “emotional mailbox” and receive a follow-up call from a counselor. During the first year and a half, nearly 1,200 people attended mobile counseling sessions.

Municipal leaders say that implementing services in the community in this way eases the burden on residents by addressing what can be an overwhelming or uncomfortable process of accessing psychological care. It is generally conceived as a first step. Residents leave the initial sessions with referrals for further care or services. In addition, there are special listening centers to address the concerns of women experiencing violence.

“We’ve been raising awareness that psychologists and these listeners aren’t just for people with diagnosed conditions,” says Sandra Milena Álvarez Ospina, Secretary of Health. “Anyone who needs to be heard can come.”

493 residents have attended psychological counseling sessions at one of the city's ``Escuchaderos.”

This approach is part of a broader suicide prevention strategy, based on ongoing data analysis. Young people are a key focus. Municipal leaders collaborated with psychologists to design an evidence-based diagnostic instrument to measure suicide risk among high school students and created a dashboard with various variables to identify populations at high, medium, and low risk of suicide. They developed specific interventions for each group, reserving the most intensive treatment for those at highest risk. For example, high-risk cases received personalized and intensive treatment, while lower-risk populations received educational sessions and coping strategies. In addition, peer support groups were created for at-risk populations and their families.

These efforts are yielding results. Among students, the number of suicide attempts decreased by 53% between 2024 and 2025. Overall, suicide attempts in the city have decreased by 38%. Jader Osorio, an epidemiologist at the health department, put it simply: “These are extremely positive results.”

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San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, Argentina

Safe Neighborhood Plazas for All

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Environment, Parks and Recreation

At a Glance

81 accessible, well-lit neighborhood plazas built between 2019 and 2025 in response to residents’ requests, bringing the total number of plazas to 175. 

The municipality’s free bike-sharing program includes 19 stations, with placement of cycling infrastructure based on disaggregated data.

100% response rate to resident requests and feedback 

Built 3D printed weather satellites that alert residents to bad weather and help the City understand the effects of climate change 

Residents of San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca want easy access to safe, high-quality green spaces. This was one clear takeaway from a survey the city conducted to guide the creation of its 2030 Comprehensive Strategic Plan, unveiled in 2022. That plan set a goal of improving green spaces to support social inclusion and urban sustainability.  

City leaders didn’t want to take a one-size-fits-all approach to modernizing parks and plazas across Catamarca, a provincial capital of about 160,000 people. Instead, they set out to design and improve these spaces through resident engagement processes that surfaced distinct neighborhood priorities.

2,551 specific actions — such as pothole repairs, sidewalk weeding and street lighting — the city has taken in response to resident requests submitted via the Cerca app.

A data analysis revealed that some of the most common problems flagged by residents involved poor lighting and the desire for a safe, closeby neighborhood public plaza. To help prioritize needs, the City created a heat map illustrating where various complaints were clustered. Municipal officials also gathered data through neighborhood-based, door-to-door outreach to residents. Plaza project designs reflected location-specific input gathered through participatory budgeting, which prioritizes resident input in budgeting processes. 

In 2023, the City received even more insights with the launch of Tu Capital Cerca. The resident-facing app  provides invaluable data for understanding specific needs and allows residents to submit requests and complaints to the city pertaining to everything from safety to infrastructure to waste collection.   

Through data from Tu Capital Cerca, the resident survey and community engagement, the municipality increased the number of plazas from 94 to 175 between 2019 and 2025, spanning all but three Catamarca neighborhoods, which the municipality plans to upgrade next. These spaces vary, incorporating requests for amenities such as dog parks, ping pong and chess tables, soccer fields, basketball courts or disability-friendly play areas. Every public plaza has LED lighting, as well as all sidewalks and other public spaces.

Today Catamarca’s sustainability and infrastructure work continues and city departments are determined to be more responsive than ever to residents’ needs. Leaders have an internal app and dashboard to help track the status of requests and complaints from the Tu Capital Cerca (and other sources, including phone calls and WhatsApp), and average time to resolution. As of November 2025, that duration is about eight days, down from around three weeks when the city first began tracking this metric.  

“We have to serve our neighbors well and make people’s lives easier,” Mayor Gustavo Saadi says.

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Quito, Ecuador

Caring for a City’s Most Vulnerable Children

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Health and Wellbeing, Youth Development, Education

At a Glance

95 child development centers operating in Quito as of December 2025.

Approximately 9,000 children served by Quito Wawas during 2024 and 2025.

The fire department’s average response time to calls was reduced from 9-10 minutes to less than four minutes.

The Quito Data Hub identified hotspots of conflict among residents, allowing the city to intervene proactively in priority areas, contributing to a 12.9% reduction in complaints, conflicts and offenses.

The research is clear: a healthy early childhood, full of love and learning, lays the foundation for success in life. However, in Quito, many young children do not receive adequate nutrition. 18% of households with children under five live in poverty, and nearly a quarter (23.3%) of children under two suffer from chronic malnutrition. Determined to address this situation, in 2023 the Metropolitan Municipality of Quito decided to significantly strengthen the free childcare, nutrition, and health resources it offers to vulnerable young children.

As part of a new Metropolitan Early Childhood Public Policy that sets goals and coordinates services across all agencies and neighborhoods, the City set out to establish 95 “Quito Wawas” early childhood development centers throughout the city by the end of 2025. “Wawa” means “young child” in Ecuador. Each center would provide children aged 1 to 3 with high needs with stimulating and safe care, as well as ongoing health and nutrition support.

To prioritize the location of the Quito Wawas, the City thoroughly analyzed demographic and nutritional data. The analyses revealed areas with the highest concentration of low-income and malnourished children, those most in need of targeted resources to support a healthier early childhood. In collaboration with non-profit organizations and local government agencies, city leaders strategically located the Quito Wawas to avoid service saturation in any single neighborhood.

Image Courtesy of the City of Quito.

“For every dollar we invest in early childhood, we get a return of up to $17.”

Mayor Pabel Muñoz

Today, thousands of young children with high needs are enrolled in 95 Quito Wawas, receiving high-quality care daily. The City Council uses intake forms to collect data on each prospective child, prioritizing the most vulnerable with the greatest barriers to nutrition, education, and basic services. The Quito Wawas are just one component of Quito’s Early Childhood Public Policy; the city council provides support and education to children from infancy through adolescence. In 2025, the number of children transitioning from Quito’s Wawa centers directly to a Municipal Early Childhood Education Center (for children up to 5 years old) increased from a dozen cases in 2024 to hundreds of children in 2025.

In June 2025, the city launched Wawamor, a free application developed in collaboration with UNICEF to support positive parenting for caregivers of children aged 0 to 6. The app offers hundreds of practical resources on nutrition, vaccination, early learning, and other topics, all available offline. By October, it had more than 13,000 downloads.

Quito’s comprehensive early childhood policy is a pioneering initiative among cities in Ecuador. After just two years of implementation, the benefits are evident. A greater number of vulnerable young children in Quito are now receiving the nutrition, healthcare, and stimulating care they deserve, helping to lay the foundation for long-term success..

“[Quito Wawas El Tejar] is spectacular. Here my daughter can be herself, grow, and learn with love and affection. I am deeply grateful.”

Inés Salcedo, mother from Quito

“If you want to understand the value of a public policy, you must be willing to analyze the data carefully, almost like before-and-after photos. It is essential that the data is available and actionable, so that if something goes wrong, it can be corrected.”

Fernanda Racines, Vice Mayor of Quito

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Rosario, Argentina

Data Supports the Fight Against Breast Cancer

Project Type:
Health & Wellbeing, Community Engagement

At a Glance

11,810 mammograms were performed in the municipal public health network between September 2024 and September 2025 (compared to 9,344 in the same period of the previous year).

The number of appointments and the number of people served increased by approximately 25%.

96% of appointments made for breast cancer screenings are kept.

50 cases of breast cancer requiring specific treatment and follow-up were identified thanks to the expansion of screening tests in Rosario’s public health system.

In Rosario, as in the rest of the world, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. Forty percent of all patients treated in the city’s local oncology care network have breast cancer. The disease is one of the top five causes of cancer death in Rosario, Argentina’s third-largest city.

Faced with these municipal public health statistics, local government authorities decided to act. In 2024, the Public Health Secretariat created a data-driven strategy to intensify breast cancer screening with the goal of enabling a greater number of life-saving early diagnoses. Until then, breast cancer screening efforts were limited to women aged 55 to 65 who were enrolled in the city’s health network and had not had a mammogram in the previous five years. The city of Rosario decided to expand outreach efforts to women aged 40 to 65 (as well as those over 35 with a family history of breast cancer) who had not been screened in five years, representing approximately 16,000 people, according to last year’s data.

Image Courtesy of the City of Rosario.

In Argentina, health services are divided among different levels of government, and although the country has a universal healthcare system, many residents, especially vulnerable populations, lack access to essential health services.

To improve participation among at-risk women, the Public Health Secretariat identified and analyzed which women in the municipal health network had not had up-to-date screenings in recent years. In the next step, public health teams contacted the women by phone or in person and scheduled free appointments for examinations at one of the dozens of health centers in the Municipal Public Health Network, which the city has dubbed “Pink Points” in its cancer awareness efforts. In October 2024, International Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the number of appointments was doubled. In addition to the morning shift traditionally offered, an afternoon shift was added, and extra staff were assigned (or existing staff were given additional hours) to conduct screenings for the early detection of breast cancer.

“Breast cancer is preventable, and if diagnosed early, it is a curable disease. If we hadn’t actively sought out women at risk, dozens of women in Rosario might still be battling the disease today.”

Soledad Rodríguez, Secretary of Public Health

Sustained and targeted efforts to engage the population have paid off. The number of mammogram appointments at public health centers doubled in 2024 (compared to 2023), reaching a peak of 1,020 screenings per month. The proportion of women at risk who had not undergone breast cancer screenings in the past five years decreased from 56 percent in 2024 to 50 percent in September 2025.

In October 2025, municipal leaders further expanded early detection efforts by partnering with the private healthcare sector. During that month, private health centers offered 500 free mammograms to patients, without requiring prior authorization or a scheduled appointment.

Image Courtesy of the City of Rosario.

Sustained and targeted efforts to engage the population have paid off. The number of mammogram appointments at public health centers doubled in 2024 (compared to 2023), reaching a peak of 1,020 screenings per month. The proportion of women at risk who had not undergone breast cancer screenings in the past five years decreased from 56 percent in 2024 to 50 percent in September 2025.

In October 2025, municipal leaders further expanded early detection efforts by partnering with the private healthcare sector. During that month, private health centers offered 500 free mammograms to patients, without requiring prior authorization or a scheduled appointment.

“Governments, especially local ones, must combat disinformation and political polarization through reliable and transparent data management. I believe that democratic legitimacy derives, in part, from using evidence and data to make decisions and govern.”

Mayor Pablo Javkin

Rosario’s approach demonstrates how data can be directly translated into lives saved. By using neighborhood-level information to guide community outreach, the municipality has improved screening rates and built a data-driven model for public health action.

Image Courtesy of the City of Rosario.

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Normal, Illinois, USA

Data Brings More Families to the Children’s Museum

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Education, Health and Wellbeing, Infrastructure and Utilities, Parks and Recreation, Youth Development

At a Glance

~ 100 → 5,700+  The estimated number of times low-income and/or underserved visitors accessed the Children’s Discovery Museum annually through the museum’s old free pass check-out at the library compared to the number of Museums for All visits in 2024.

2,683 The total number of households served by the museum’s Museums for All program since launching in 2018.

Developed an internal sidewalk dashboard that helped the Town reach ADA compliance for 99% of Town sidewalks.

Repainted more than 50% of streets in 2024 after investing in public works data infrastructure to better track road painting efforts.

In cities and towns across the U.S., museums provide first-come, first-served free or reduced-price passes at local libraries. The idea is to make museums more affordable, engaging and enriching for people who might not otherwise visit.

That was the main purpose of the Children’s Discovery Museum’s library pass program in Normal, Illinois, a town of 53,000 anchored by Illinois State University. For years, the free passes were in high demand, with a waitlist. But when leaders of the Town-owned and operated museum took a closer look at which library patrons were checking out passes, they realized few of them were in the target audience: low-income, underserved families.

In fact, by cross-referencing library checkout data with the museum’s entrance and membership data, staff discovered that a majority of library pass users had once paid for annual museum memberships or otherwise demonstrated they could afford a membership. Moreover, the library pass system wasn’t providing accessibility. For example, a data review revealed that one household checked a museum pass out 43 times in one year. The free pass program was definitely popular, but it was not meeting the stated goals for reaching low-income families.

Given all this, Normal’s museum leadership team decided to switch to a new, more targeted and self-sustaining approach: the Museums for All initiative.

Image Courtesy of the City of Normal.

Instead of library passes that may or may not be available on any given day, Museums for All provides annual memberships to qualifying families. Any household in McLean County can join by presenting their public assistance EBT/WIC cards, along with a form of identification. They only need to do so once each year, in private, to receive a Museums for All Pass. Benefits include half-price admission ($5) for up to six people, including extended family who do not live at the same address (children under 2 are free) and other member discounts for camps and events.

“Sometimes data-based findings can be surprising. When you can point to data while explaining that a program is working for some but not all—and therefore the model has to change—it makes change easier.”

Cathy Oloffson, Director of Communications & Community Relations
Image Courtesy of the City of Normal.

Now the museum has clear data showing it is meeting the program goal by reaching underserved families. In the first year after launching Museums for All in 2018, 350 households signed up—about the same number as had been using free library passes. By 2025, more than 1,500 households had enrolled. As of July 2025, Museums for All has served 2,683 households and accounted for nearly 21,000 museum visits.

Since the museum has these members’ contact information, it can better engage them with targeted marketing about scholarships, free events and other resources. That means more children can fall in love with learning through the museum’s hands-on, play-based exhibits and programs.

How else has Normal become more data-driven? 

  • Normal has been a Tree City USA community for 26 years and running. To build a tree canopy that benefits more residents, the Town secured a U.S. Forest Service grant to plant and maintain trees in an underserved neighborhood. 
  • The Town has implemented more advanced wastewater lift station monitoring. This allows the Town to better monitor for pump failure, troubleshoot issues and proactively manage equipment.
  • Immediate alerts from the lift station monitoring app have reduced avoidable maintenance costs, one saving the Town at least $800 by preventing an unnecessary battery replacement and another time about $1,500 by avoiding an electrician visit — demonstrating how real-time monitoring shifts the department from reactive to a cost-saving, proactive response.
  • The Town strengthened engagement through regular Community Satisfaction Surveys, done in partnership with Zencity.  Insights from these surveys help inform changes to projects and programs. In addition to the regular satisfaction surveys, the Town conducts other surveys, as needed. Data from the Public Art survey illustrated the community’s desire for a public art initiative.

“We want to serve everybody and inspire kids to be lifelong learners. To do that as a museum, we need to remove barriers to access.”

Beth Whisman, Director of Cultural Arts & Executive Director, Children's Discovery Museum

2,683 Households served by the Museums for All program since launching in 2018

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Dayton, Ohio, USA

A First-of-its-Kind Approach to Alternative Emergency Response

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Health and Wellbeing, Housing, Infrastructure and Utilities, Public Safety

At a Glance

Created alternative emergency response teams staffed with professional mediators. Since 2022, 7,202 emergency calls have been diverted to mediators and only 2% have required police intervention.

City leaders believe the mediation response unit model to be the first of its kind in the United States.

A new system for routing and tracking trash pickups gives the City better data for improving performance.

Replaced paper housing inspections to digital, enabling the City and residents to view all housing condition data on a public dashboard.

Since 2020, dozens of U.S. cities have created community response teams to divert some non-emergency calls away from police officers. A big focus of these unarmed response teams, which are usually staffed by trained clinicians, is calls related to persons experiencing mental or behavioral health problems.

Dayton’s program is a little different. Alternative response in Dayton is focused largely on calls related to arguments between neighbors, noise complaints, roommate disputes, unruly behavior and other forms of nonviolent conflict. When someone dials 911 with one of these issues, the call is screened by Dayton Medication Response Unit and if appropriate MRU staff self-dispatches to the call.

The team includes professional mediators who are trained to respond to crisis and de-escalate conflict. They create space in the moment for people to vent and feel heard, help resolve conflicts and follow up later to see if there are lingering issues. While many cities across the United States have alternative emergency response programs focused on mental health crises, this is the country’s first model focused on mediation.

Image courtesy of the City of Dayton.

98% of calls do not require police backup.

“People are now calling the Mediation Response Unit directly instead of calling 911. That’s a good thing, because it’s changing the culture of how people request the right service for what they need.”

Michelle Zaremba, Mediation Division Manager

The idea for the Mediation Response Unit came out of a working group made up of community members and city officials. The approach is built on 911 call data; working group members collaborated with issue experts to identify types of calls that could be handled by mediators instead of police.

Now, MRU self-dispatches after screening out for violence, after screening for violence, weapons, or other situations that would necessitate a police response. As residents get to know that the mediation unit exists, they are increasingly calling a direct MRU call line to reach the unit directly rather than calling 911. That means both dispatchers and police are freed up to handle more pressing matters.

7,202 emergency calls diverted to mediators as of November 2025

In the first three years, the service has fielded more than 7,000 service calls. They are tracked on a public dashboard that is updated nightly and shows what types of calls are coming in from which parts of the city. As a case study of the program from the Council of State Governments notes, the City uses this data to assess trends, spot service gaps and identify changes needed. Approximately 2 percent of calls have required a police officer to be called for backup, a sign that the system is handling the right kinds of cases.

“The mediators are doing a fantastic job,” says Michelle Zaremba, Mediation Division Manager for the City of Dayton. “Callers get a lot of time with the responders. They can talk with them and really express what’s frustrating to them. But also for the person they’re calling on, it’s less offensive to have somebody who’s not a police officer come out.“

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San Rafael, California, USA

Data Supports Expanded Crisis Response

Project Type:
Community Engagement, Environment, Health and Wellbeing, Infrastructure, Public Safety, Technology

At a Glance

Provides mobile crisis response for approximately 3,000 SAFE calls for service each year, about 8.5% of total calls for service.

Conducted a detailed analysis of past community plans in the Canal District and increased transparency and accountability by reporting to the community on what the City accomplished, the challenges faced, and why some priorities have yet to be addressed.

Partnered with UC Berkeley and local non-profits to model flood risk and map vulnerable facilities, and worked alongside residents to co-create ideas to improve the City’s resilience.

Mapped city assets using LiDAR data, created a citywide asset inventory, and implemented an Asset Management System that helps the City better allocate resources, complete work orders and serve residents.

Not every 911 call requires police, EMS and firefighters. Someone may have minor medical complaints that don’t demand emergency room (ER) care. Others may be  unhoused and need connection to shelter or other social services. Some are experiencing a mental health crisis and would benefit from counseling.

A significant number of calls received by 911 dispatchers in San Rafael, California, are requesting support for unhoused individuals, or people who need support for their mental health or substance use, rather than  for an active crime or a medical emergency. Arresting or transporting individuals to the ER is often counterproductive and wastes city resources and taxpayer dollars.

In 2023, the San Francisco Bay Area city of about 61,000 people decided to offer a fourth branch of response that goes beyond police, EMS and firefighters. The decision was spurred by a use of force incident in 2022, in which a man was seriously injured by two San Rafael police officers. The incident caused the City to rethink its emergency services and data analysis showed that there was sufficient call volume in San Rafael to support an alternative response team.

Image courtesy of the City of San Rafael.

“We show up with just a uniform and a radio, so we’re not seen as a threat. That helps people open up, lets us have longer conversations and makes it easier to connect residents to the resources they really need.”

Aziz Majid, SAFE Program Director

Thus, the City of San Rafael launched a mobile crisis response team called SAFE (“Specialized Assistance for Everyone”). Comprising crisis intervention specialists and EMTs, SAFE responds to a range of non-acute situations. The team may help a resident receive behavioral healthcare support, or help a senior veteran with no family nearby connect to the Veterans Administration.

Another focus of SAFE is proactive outreach to build relationships with residents so that low-level problems don’t turn into urgent issues. A majority (55%) of all calls to SAFE since its launch have involved unhoused individuals, underscoring that the service has helped the City respond promptly and in targeted ways to meet the needs of these residents. The SAFE team’s focus on homelessness-related challenges has also freed up police resources for acute emergencies. Rates of motor vehicle theft, burglaries and arrests have fallen since the program began.

12% reduction in response time for Priority 1 Emergency 911 calls since 2023

As the City considers expanding the service, leaders have dug into data detailing service calls to support adding staff and extending operating hours. They created a heat map of times of day and days of the week with the highest call volumes, broken down by type. With a clear understanding of temporal call trends and residents’ needs, the San Rafael Police Department, which oversees SAFE, can make a data-driven budgeting case to City Council for bringing on new staff with the right specialized training. Most importantly, more residents may be able to receive the healthcare or social services they need.

“We don’t buy into the squeaky wheel syndrome, the idea that whoever is loudest and well-connected can steer decisions to allocate scarce resources in the city. Instead, we look to data to understand if we’re investing in and working on the right things.”

Kate Colin, Mayor, City of San Rafael

32% reduction in the use of force by the San Rafael Police Department between 2023 and 2024

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