The Center for Digital Government (CDG) announced the City of Tulsa’s IT department ranked in the Top 10 of the 2020 Digital Cities Survey. Now in its 20th year, the annual survey recognizes cities using technology to tackle social challenges, enhance services, strengthen cybersecurity, and more.
“The City of Tulsa should be proud of the work done here,” said Michael Dellinger, Chief Information Officer for the City of Tulsa. “Every department worked collaboratively to ensure we continued to provide our services to Tulsa residents throughout these tough times.”
Like a lot of other cities, Tulsa saw COVID-19 as a wake-up call and an opportunity when it came to cybersecurity. This year, the City reorganized its IT department to prioritize security in a way that it hadn’t before. That reorganization included the creation of a new security “section,” headed by the City’s newly hired IT security manager.
The section has invested in new security apparatuses and assisted the City in its secure transition to remote work with the onset of the pandemic. The IT department also collaborated with the Tulsa Police Department for improved security in 2019, helping them to invest in new security systems like multi-factor authentication, so that they could pass an FBI IT security audit.
At the same time, the City has also invested in modern data solutions over the past year or so. Most impressive is Tulsa’s ongoing work with its Urban Data Pioneers program – which uses data analysis to better respond to critical issues within urban communities. The program recently used predictive models to understand the risk of house fires in specific neighborhoods within the city. The data has the potential to help the Tulsa Fire Department target specific areas for social service outreach and preventative efforts.
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