The NYPD Was Ticketing Legally Parked Cars; Open Data Put an End to It
For people who skip straight to the comments: I couldn&#x27;t fit it into the title, but the other half of the OP&#x27;s title is that the author confronted the NYPD with his data analysis and they <i>thanked</i> him <i>and</i> spoke positively about the effect of open data:<p>&gt; <i>“Mr. Wellington’s analysis identified errors the department made in issuing parking summonses. It appears to be a misunderstanding by officers on patrol of a recent, abstruse change in the parking rules.  We appreciate Mr. Wellington bringing this anomaly to our attention...<p>&gt; </i>Thanks to this analysis and the availability of this open data, the department is also taking steps to digitally monitor these types of summonses to ensure that they are being issued correctly.”*<p>Sure, it&#x27;s easy to pay lip service to open data and transparency...but I&#x27;ve found for the most part that bureaucracies are generally OK with open data <i>after it&#x27;s been ingrained in their culture</i> (which is why it is so amazingly easy to get data from Florida -- they have an IT system that is optimized to handle it -- the employees don&#x27;t mind fulfilling the requests since it&#x27;s no skin off their back).<p>Bloomberg got the ball rolling, and hopefully the momentum continues...I&#x27;d be happy with NYC agencies tolerating open data as a status quo...Looking forward to the day when bureaucrats and citizens can get to the point where transparency isn&#x27;t seen as a zero-sum game.