This article is written by Milda Aksamitauskas, chief data officer, Wisconsin Department of Justice. This article is one of the entrants in Apolitical's 2020 American public servant writing competition.

Would you like to be able to predict where and when graffiti, potholes or broken streetlights are likely to occur in your city? Or would you like to be on a team assessing the impact of the facial recognition system local police are using?

If so, you should consider a career in big data.

Government agencies existed before there were computers, radios and even cars invented. Mission statements have not changed much in a hundred years. Taxing, education, justice and social services remain core of a civilised society.

The US Bureau of Internal Revenue was established in 1862 to collect income tax to finance the Civil War. Wisconsin opened the first free, tax-supported, graded school in Kenosha in 1849 and in the same year the first telegram reached Milwaukee.

The census of all people living in the country has been conducted every decade since 1790. Birth and death records were one of the first systems in state agencies that got computerised and, while it may have started for purposes to count and tax everyone, health data collection, allowing epidemiologists to create pamphlets about maternal and infant health.

I adore the hand drawn charts from 1926 whose clarity still compete with current R visualisations highlighting the most important information for the reader.

The point is this: government has always had big data, but now you finally get to analyse it!

And while the essence of what government agencies do evolves slowly, it never comes to a halt. How government works does change, and smart people should be part of it.

Public data for good

Government-led data analysis is done for public good and has to be credible.

With the recent increase in public awareness regarding corporate usage of big data, people are demanding that their data is used ethically. One recent example of the opposite was when Target predicted that a young woman was pregnant when she started buying unscented lotion, and began sending her diaper advertisements. Her family hadn’t gotten the good news yet and were not happy with the ads.

This is a pretty impressive achievement by a corporate data analyst who combined shopping patterns with some insights about what that person may be buying in the future.

I continue to get doll catalogues even though I am raising two boys just because I once purchased a baby girl present for a friend

But how many misdirected advertisements have you received? I continue to get doll catalogs even though I am raising two boys just because I once purchased a baby girl present for a friend.

Despite this, there is little talk about inaccurate prediction models from private companies. For these companies, “good enough” models work.

But turn the same logic to government agencies. If a government entity contacted an individual based on a similar “good enough” model predicting that individual needed a service, and the model was wrong, the reaction would likely be significant and negative.

Government data analysts have a much harder, and I would argue rewarding, task of using data for social good. They must make efficient use of taxpayer money and must work diligently to eliminate false positives. If a building has lead paint, it needs to be remediated. People with complex mental health and social needs require resources and care coordination to reduce their risk of incarceration.

Public data analysts don’t just repackage their agency’s data to be compatible with a different government agency to get a bonus payment for a new insight. Public data analysts figure out solutions to big societal problems that are still unaddressed and unresolved by the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon.

What data points to rely on when terminating parental rights? How to help a young mother have a healthy birth outcome and to continue education that leads to independence?

Making a mark on government

Through my work in government, I estimated the number of uninsured people and witnessed firsthand the impact of the health insurance expansion for real people; I created an opioid data reporting system that brought a two year time lag for reporting numbers down to almost real time, in order to help people working to end the epidemic. Our new and improved birth report was even featured on Wisconsin Public Radio on the day it was released.

A career analysing big data in government is more rewarding than a well-paying job in the private sector, because we get to improve the lives of neighbors and citizens rather than chase quarterly profits.

Private companies collect data about their customers and usually buy some data generated by others to segment customers into categories such as ESRI’s “soccer moms” or “heartland communities.”

If you are creative and persistent, you can get a longitudinal and outcome-based view of the population your agency serves

Government already has most demographic information and can segment the population with the most critical sources of information being verified. The actual fun begins when you don’t have the data you need. Don’t let that stop you.

Work with other agencies and government colleagues and enter into a Memorandum of Understanding or a Data Use Agreement and get educational, housing or employment outcome data about the people your program is serving. If you are creative and persistent, you can get a longitudinal and outcome-based view of the population your agency serves, leading to better service and better outcomes in the long run.

I am impressed by the ability of Amazon’s logistics operation to deliver a package the next business day and Facebook’s ability to recognise faces in the photos I upload. But I am even more impressed with what civil service professionals achieve with only a shoestring budget and loyalty for the program they work for.

I wish 2020 and the decade ahead brings you data dictionaries, some resources for analysis tools, and leadership that is willing to learn from the data insights you produce. The next decade will bring a quiet revolution to and by public servants to scale up data projects in order to make a lasting impact on our communities. — Milda Aksamitauskas

This article was prepared by Milda Aksamitauskas in her personal capacity. Any opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of the Wisconsin Department of Justice or the Attorney General.

(Picture Credit: Unsplash)

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