Innovate for Society

Cities need secure systems, usable data tools, and location data. Here are three new ways to get them.

(With a dedicated civil service and a City Innovation Fund, what's to stop civic innovation in Los Angeles?)

A half million change agents

A half million plus LAUSD students will finish an Hour of Code today, the last day of Computer Science Education Week*. Our schools are introducing an entire generation of Angelenos to computer programming. Some of these students will recall this week opened the door to a career in creating world-changing digital and robotic innovations. All of them will argue whether it was when the end of work (as their parents knew it) began.

In September, the Los Angeles Police Department wrapped up a pilot of wearable cameras. In November they choose a supplier. Now they are planning a deployment in light of reminders from Ferguson that witness testimony is nearly unusable and their fellow citizens are ambiguous about the violence they are equipped and trained to use. Wearable cameras are part of the future of policing but they cannot be the center of it. Read on to find out why to realize the full value of a new body camera, every officer must first get a new holster.