April 11, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lower Manhattan — At New York City Council’s Stated Meeting at City Hall today, Council Member Eric Dinowitz introduced the final bill of his legislative package regarding the reformation of the current system through which to submit service requests to 311. The legislative package, entitled Citywide Accessibility Responsiveness and Efficiency in 311 (CARE 311), seeks to effectively expedite the submission process and adapt it according to the needs of the community, thereby making it more accessible. The bills include a variety of both substantial structural and technical reforms such as: the acceptance of image and video data from the service requester for better reference of the issue at hand, provision of estimated wait times in real-time, incorporation of customer service satisfaction surveys and public agency report cards, and the installation of video call and live chat functionalities. 

The bill introduced today specifically addresses a crucial insufficiency of the 311 service requests system. When multiple service requests are submitted regarding a singular issue, especially at similar times, users are often told the case is closed and receive no further information nor feedback. The bill would mandate that the duplicate requests be kept in and cases not be closed solely on the basis of it being a duplicate request.