Technology and Innovation Accomplishments
The Technology & Innovation Department (TID) uses technology to make city services better, safer, and easier to use. Recent work includes winning a top national digital award, helping more people get online, teaching community tech skills, improving city apps, and making city systems more secure and reliable.
Why this matters
- Better technology helps residents get services faster.
- It creates jobs and training opportunities.
- It keeps city data and services safer.
What the department accomplished (main highlights)
- Won the first‑place “Digital City” award from the Center for Digital Government for our population size.
- Recognized as a 2025 Visionary Digital Inclusion Trailblazer by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.
- Grew the Long Beach Data Learning Community to nearly 600 city staff to improve data skills.
- Made a Digital Inclusion Resources Map with 50+ local programs for internet access, devices, and training.
- Ran the Long Beach Collaboratory (LB Co‑Lab) program that trains residents in tech and gives a stipend for their work.
- Collected 48 vendor pitches through Pitch Long Beach! to find new technology ideas for the city.
- Launched pilot projects, including smart restrooms and neighborhood tech pilots.
Making city services easier to use
- The Go Long Beach app handled over 42,000 requests from Oct 2024 to Jun 2025 (7% more than last year).
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Updated Generative AI (Gen AI) guidance for staff and ran six training sessions on responsible use.
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Tested AI chatbots and other tools to make services more accessible.
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Ran four public workshops on data privacy to help residents understand their rights.
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LBTV produced 542 video segments covering city events and news.
Improving security and systems
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Added tools to strengthen cybersecurity and reduce risk.
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Used Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to handle routine tasks and save staff time.
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Built digital forms and workflows so people and staff can do work online.
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Upgraded financial and billing systems for better performance.
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Moved the city’s old mainframe to a cloud‑hosted system.
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Started moving disaster recovery systems to the cloud.
Projects that help residents directly
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Expanded virtual appointments so people can meet building and safety staff online.
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Launched the Time Entry project to replace paper time sheets with an online system.
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Began LB Builds to replace the old permitting system with a modern online solution.
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Started work to replace the Utilities customer portal with a more user‑friendly platform.
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Created tools to manage sidewalk vending and tell vendors where they can operate.
Fast, reliable communications and cameras
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Upgraded network services and installed cameras at parks and community centers.
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Maintained and expanded the citywide camera system to about 2,800 cameras (with Police and Public Works).
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Designed a plan to bring fiber network backbone within two miles of most places in the city.
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Added Wi‑Fi based radio capability for Fire and Police.
Helping city workers be productive
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The TID Help Desk took about 19,100 calls. Staff resolved roughly 18,700 incidents and 26,800 service requests.
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Added new request types in the service portal (ServiceNow).
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Replaced about 950 computers to improve staff performance.
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Prepared applications and systems for Windows 11.
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Upgraded and moved many databases to reduce complexity and risk.
