BOS:311 and Boston's Service-Request Record

🤖 AI-generated summary · ◆ 1 sourced claim · 🔎 Last verified

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

1 sourced claim on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.

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✎ Corrected 20 Aug 2026 Publication date recorded for 1 source. What changed →

Ten of CityScore's 23 metrics are built from residents' reports. But about 80% of them come from within two blocks of the reporter's home, and no audit checks whether a closed case was fixed.

Evidence🔬 Peer-reviewed
what does this mean?The strongest source behind this entry is an independent peer-reviewed or academic study. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Scale🏙️ City-wide

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 9 more in Boston · 🪪 Digital government guide · 🏛️ Governance projects

Boston put a reporting app in residents' hands in 2009, six years before the phone code: Citizens Connect became BOS:311 when Mayor Walsh switched on the 3-1-1 line on 11 August 2015. Every case is published daily under a public-domain dedication, carrying a target date for its case type, and ten of CityScore's 23 metrics are built from that data. What the timestamps cannot say is whether a closed case was fixed; no independent audit has checked.

Live 📅 since 2009

📊 Impact

More than 282,000 service requests in 2024; 198,838 cases in the database were marked closed and nearly 42,000 remained open — counts that leave roughly 41,000 cases unaccounted for, a gap the paper does not explain — all counted from the city's own open dataset by the Boston Globe, January 2025. The city's own last published channel figure is older: the app carried 6% of all service requests in 2010 and roughly 28% by 2014.

🎓 Lesson

Complaint counts measure reporting behaviour as much as conditions, and Boston's own archive is where that was shown. Linking 311 records, a user survey and voter rolls for 722 Boston reporters, Northeastern researchers found 76% filed a single case and about 80% of reports came from within two blocks of the reporter's home. Neighbourhoods do not pick up the phone at equal rates, so services allocated by complaint volume follow the reporters.

Sources

↗ City of Boston — BOS:311 App (Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics)Updated 13 April 2026 archived copyOperator page for the origin: 'Launched in 2009' and 'then called Citizens Connect'. Source of the channel figures: 'In 2010, reports from the app made up 6% of all service requests tracked within the City's systems. By 2014, the app now accounts for roughly 28% of all service requests.' The same page claims the app 'has been replicated and modeled by many other cities throughout Massachusetts and across the country' — operator self-description, deliberately kept out of the entry, and no source supports a 'first' claim. The page does not say who built the 2009 app, so the entry does not credit New Urban Mechanics with building it, only with running it.
↗ City of Boston — Mayor Walsh Launches Boston 311 (11 August 2015) archived copyThe rename and its date: on 11 August 2015 the city switched on the 3-1-1 dialling code and rebranded the Citizens Connect app as BOS:311. Confirmed via search rather than direct fetch; the date is corroborated independently by WBUR and Boston.com, both of which carry 2015/08/11 in their own URLs.
↗ WBUR — Boston Rolls Out 311 System For Reporting Non-Emergency Issues (11 August 2015) archived copyIndependent second source for the launch of the 3-1-1 line and the app rebrand on the same day, from public radio rather than the city.
↗ Analyze Boston — 311 Service Requests dataset archived copyThe dataset and the licence position: Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL), updated daily, publisher Department of Innovation and Technology, provider Boston 311, source the city CRM, with per-year CSV files from 2011 to 2026. Carries TARGET_DT alongside OPEN_DT and CLOSED_DT — a published per-case-type target, which is what makes the on-time question answerable at all. Also the currency note: 'Data transitioned to a new backend system beginning October 2025, with full migration anticipated by mid-2026', during which some case types populate the legacy file and some a new, differently structured one.
↗ City of Boston — CityScoreUpdated 30 October 2025The 311-to-CityScore link, counted from the operator's own metric list: of 23 metrics, eight are on-time rates for 311 case types (Pothole Repair, Streetlight Outages, Sign Installation, Signal Repair, Graffiti Removal, Tree Maintenance, Parks Maintenance, Missed Trash) and two more are 311 Call Center Performance and 311 Constituent Experience Surveys. Scoring: 'scores below 1 indicate that performance is below the target', 'scores above 1 indicate that performance is exceeding the target'. Also carries the EMS case: the mayor funded 'a new class of 20 EMTs and buy 10 replacement ambulances'.
Show 7 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ BOS:311 — Open311 API documentationThe write interface exists: the docs describe a 'Create Service Request' operation and state that 'The application key must be used in both read and write requests', with a default limit of '10 requests per minute' and Bearer-token authentication. Unlike San Francisco's, the key must be applied for and approved, which is why the entry does not claim an open write channel.
↗ The Boston Globe — What did Boston residents complain about the most last year? (6 January 2025) archived copySource of the impact counts, computed by the paper from the city's own dataset: 'more than 282,000 requests for service in total'; '198,838 of the cases in the database were marked as closed by the city — or approximately 82 percent. Nearly 42,000 remained open.' The article's own 82% is NOT used here: 198,838 closed plus nearly 42,000 open accounts for about 241,000 cases, not 282,000, and the article does not explain the roughly 41,000 difference. Top complaint types were parking enforcement (63,236), street cleaning (22,539) and improper storage of trash barrels (20,432).
↗ Boston 25 News — Boston backlog of thousands of 311 hazardous sidewalk complaints piles up (22 July 2025)The closure counterweight, and the closest thing to outside scrutiny found: 'of the 5,700 reports of sidewalk defects made throughout 2024, more than two-thirds remained open as of June' and the backlog is 'estimated to cost the city $800 million dollars'. The report attributes the counts to city data without naming an official source, so it is carried as press, not as an audit.
↗ O'Brien, Offenhuber, Baldwin-Philippi, Sands & Gordon — Uncharted Territoriality in Coproduction: The Motivations for 311 Reporting, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 27(2)Published 18 August 2016Peer-reviewed basis for the lesson, and it is about Boston specifically. What it measured: three linked forms of information at individual level for a sample of Boston 311 users, n = 722 — reporting activity from the 311 archive, a user survey covering self-reported civic activity and territorial motives, and voter registration records. Findings quoted: 'most (76%) of 311 users reported only one case' and '80% within 2 blocks of home'. The abstract was read through the search index rather than fetched directly; the two-blocks figure is independently corroborated by the fetched Northeastern News piece.
↗ Northeastern News — What the 311 system can tell us about the future of smart cities (18 September 2019)Fetched corroboration of the geography — 'Nearly 80 percent of the reports came from people who were within two blocks of their home' — and the equity point in O'Brien's own words, from The Urban Commons (Harvard University Press, 2018): 'a collaborative relationship depends on the assumption that people in every neighborhood are going to pick up the phone or pull up the app and report something. And what we find in the book is that's simply not true.'
↗ Boston Area Research Initiative — 311 Requests, Boston Data Portal (Harvard Dataverse)Published 15 May 2016 · updated 23 February 2026The cleaned research version is real and current: doi:10.7910/DVN/CVKM87, first published 15 May 2016, version 10 released 23 February 2026, by Dan O'Brien, Forrest Hangen, Alina Ristea and Mahbub Maulaa. Licence CC0 1.0, no access restrictions. Holds the archive plus derived case types, per-user reporting patterns and neighbourhood ecometric measures — the same measures the equity findings rest on, published so others can recheck them.
↗ City of Boston — 311 Technology Modernization ProjectCurrency: 'The City adopted its current 311 system in 2008', a Lagan platform now 'outdated, slow, and increasingly difficult to support', being replaced by Creatio for constituent relationship management and Cartegraph for asset management, rolled out in milestones. 'The full transformation of Boston's 311 system is expected to be complete by mid-2026.'

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2009. 6 of 12 sources carry a publication date, from 11 August 2015 to 22 July 2025.

When the sources were published

  1. WBUR · pressWBUR — Boston Rolls Out 311 System For Reporting Non-Emergency Issues (11 August 2015)
  2. Harvard Dataverse, Harvard University · researchBoston Area Research Initiative — 311 Requests, Boston Data Portal (Harvard Dataverse) · updated 23 February 2026
  3. Oxford University Press · researchO'Brien, Offenhuber, Baldwin-Philippi, Sands & Gordon — Uncharted Territoriality in Coproduction: The Motivations for 311 Reporting, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 27(2)
  4. Northeastern University · researchNortheastern News — What the 311 system can tell us about the future of smart cities (18 September 2019)
  5. The Boston Globe · pressThe Boston Globe — What did Boston residents complain about the most last year? (6 January 2025)
  6. Boston 25 News · pressBoston 25 News — Boston backlog of thousands of 311 hazardous sidewalk complaints piles up (22 July 2025)

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Sources last read
  2. Publication date recorded for 1 source
  3. Entered the record

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 1 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 1 addressable claim, 12 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 1

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-1ad14068aec3d6a1 quantitative
More than 282,000 service requests in 2024; 198,838 cases in the database were marked closed and nearly 42,000 remained open
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The impact states these counts were tallied from the city's own open dataset by the Boston Globe in January 2025.
Caveat
The counts leave roughly 41,000 cases unaccounted for, and no independent audit has checked whether a closed case was actually fixed.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Boston Globe — What did Boston residents complain about the most last year? (6 January 2025)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-20-source-dates-corrected effective 2026-07-26 · created 2026-08-20

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:a81e0b6aef75794c528d59696352a1cae08a8078959c746bdf21f11ce2753665
1
of 1 claims mapped
12
source dossiers
7
publication dates recorded
1
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Boston 311, with the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics and the Department of Innovation and Technology (City of Boston)
Actor types
city-government
Funding model
public
Funding description
Not recorded
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

12 source dossiers

City of Boston — BOS:311 App (Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics) boston.gov · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-0449ce037d49056a
Publisher
Name not classified · boston.gov
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
2026-04-13
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Operator page for the origin: 'Launched in 2009' and 'then called Citizens Connect'. Source of the channel figures: 'In 2010, reports from the app made up 6% of all service requests tracked within the City's systems. By 2014, the app now accounts for roughly 28% of all service requests.' The same page claims the app 'has been replicated and modeled by many other cities throughout Massachusetts and across the country' — operator self-description, deliberately kept out of the entry, and no source supports a 'first' claim. The page does not say who built the 2009 app, so the entry does not credit New Urban Mechanics with building it, only with running it.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
City of Boston — Mayor Walsh Launches Boston 311 (11 August 2015) boston.gov · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-3cfa2f44d341dcfd
Publisher
Name not classified · boston.gov
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2015-08-11
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The rename and its date: on 11 August 2015 the city switched on the 3-1-1 dialling code and rebranded the Citizens Connect app as BOS:311. Confirmed via search rather than direct fetch; the date is corroborated independently by WBUR and Boston.com, both of which carry 2015/08/11 in their own URLs.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
WBUR — Boston Rolls Out 311 System For Reporting Non-Emergency Issues (11 August 2015) wbur.org · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-54adac68294f1183
Publisher
Name not classified · wbur.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2015-08-11
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Independent second source for the launch of the 3-1-1 line and the app rebrand on the same day, from public radio rather than the city.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Analyze Boston — 311 Service Requests dataset data.boston.gov · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-8c39d46031aa2804
Publisher
Name not classified · data.boston.gov
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The dataset and the licence position: Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL), updated daily, publisher Department of Innovation and Technology, provider Boston 311, source the city CRM, with per-year CSV files from 2011 to 2026. Carries TARGET_DT alongside OPEN_DT and CLOSED_DT — a published per-case-type target, which is what makes the on-time question answerable at all. Also the currency note: 'Data transitioned to a new backend system beginning October 2025, with full migration anticipated by mid-2026', during which some case types populate the legacy file and some a new, differently structured one.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
City of Boston — CityScore boston.gov · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-4733f943649d764d
Publisher
Name not classified · boston.gov
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
2025-10-30
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The 311-to-CityScore link, counted from the operator's own metric list: of 23 metrics, eight are on-time rates for 311 case types (Pothole Repair, Streetlight Outages, Sign Installation, Signal Repair, Graffiti Removal, Tree Maintenance, Parks Maintenance, Missed Trash) and two more are 311 Call Center Performance and 311 Constituent Experience Surveys. Scoring: 'scores below 1 indicate that performance is below the target', 'scores above 1 indicate that performance is exceeding the target'. Also carries the EMS case: the mayor funded 'a new class of 20 EMTs and buy 10 replacement ambulances'.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
BOS:311 — Open311 API documentation 311.boston.gov · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-a0c6b8d5f63d2913
Publisher
Name not classified · 311.boston.gov
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The write interface exists: the docs describe a 'Create Service Request' operation and state that 'The application key must be used in both read and write requests', with a default limit of '10 requests per minute' and Bearer-token authentication. Unlike San Francisco's, the key must be applied for and approved, which is why the entry does not claim an open write channel.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
The Boston Globe — What did Boston residents complain about the most last year? (6 January 2025) bostonglobe.com · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-1fd4f578f3a9f373
Publisher
Name not classified · bostonglobe.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-01-06
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
Open archived copy ↗ · 2025-11-04
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Source of the impact counts, computed by the paper from the city's own dataset: 'more than 282,000 requests for service in total'; '198,838 of the cases in the database were marked as closed by the city — or approximately 82 percent. Nearly 42,000 remained open.' The article's own 82% is NOT used here: 198,838 closed plus nearly 42,000 open accounts for about 241,000 cases, not 282,000, and the article does not explain the roughly 41,000 difference. Top complaint types were parking enforcement (63,236), street cleaning (22,539) and improper storage of trash barrels (20,432).

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Boston 25 News — Boston backlog of thousands of 311 hazardous sidewalk complaints piles up (22 July 2025) boston25news.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-8f33c915ac22d914
Publisher
Name not classified · boston25news.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-07-22
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The closure counterweight, and the closest thing to outside scrutiny found: 'of the 5,700 reports of sidewalk defects made throughout 2024, more than two-thirds remained open as of June' and the backlog is 'estimated to cost the city $800 million dollars'. The report attributes the counts to city data without naming an official source, so it is carried as press, not as an audit.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
O'Brien, Offenhuber, Baldwin-Philippi, Sands & Gordon — Uncharted Territoriality in Coproduction: The Motivations for 311 Reporting, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 27(2) academic.oup.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-7e8c88ca944afc08
Publisher
Name not classified · academic.oup.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2016-08-18
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Peer-reviewed basis for the lesson, and it is about Boston specifically. What it measured: three linked forms of information at individual level for a sample of Boston 311 users, n = 722 — reporting activity from the 311 archive, a user survey covering self-reported civic activity and territorial motives, and voter registration records. Findings quoted: 'most (76%) of 311 users reported only one case' and '80% within 2 blocks of home'. The abstract was read through the search index rather than fetched directly; the two-blocks figure is independently corroborated by the fetched Northeastern News piece.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Northeastern News — What the 311 system can tell us about the future of smart cities (18 September 2019) news.northeastern.edu · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-17e1e59ad18246d1
Publisher
Name not classified · news.northeastern.edu
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2019-09-18
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Fetched corroboration of the geography — 'Nearly 80 percent of the reports came from people who were within two blocks of their home' — and the equity point in O'Brien's own words, from The Urban Commons (Harvard University Press, 2018): 'a collaborative relationship depends on the assumption that people in every neighborhood are going to pick up the phone or pull up the app and report something. And what we find in the book is that's simply not true.'

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Boston Area Research Initiative — 311 Requests, Boston Data Portal (Harvard Dataverse) dataverse.harvard.edu · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-c783618afa8348bf
Publisher
Name not classified · dataverse.harvard.edu
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2016-05-15
Updated
2026-02-23
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The cleaned research version is real and current: doi:10.7910/DVN/CVKM87, first published 15 May 2016, version 10 released 23 February 2026, by Dan O'Brien, Forrest Hangen, Alina Ristea and Mahbub Maulaa. Licence CC0 1.0, no access restrictions. Holds the archive plus derived case types, per-user reporting patterns and neighbourhood ecometric measures — the same measures the equity findings rest on, published so others can recheck them.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
City of Boston — 311 Technology Modernization Project boston.gov · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-6f2de46cb73175bd
Publisher
Name not classified · boston.gov
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Currency: 'The City adopted its current 311 system in 2008', a Lagan platform now 'outdated, slow, and increasingly difficult to support', being replaced by Creatio for constituent relationship management and Cartegraph for asset management, rolled out in milestones. 'The full transformation of Boston's 311 system is expected to be complete by mid-2026.'

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “BOS:311 and Boston's Service-Request Record” — Boston, United States. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/boston-311/ (last verified 2026-07-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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