1001 Smart Cities
🇺🇸 Chicago

Chicago's Open Data Executive Order and Portal

🤖 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.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

The 2012 executive order told every department to publish its data and file an annual compliance report. The portal still runs, 911 datasets deep. The Inspector General found none had been filed since 2014.

Outcome🔄 Ongoing
Evidence📊 Independent
what does this mean?The strongest source is an independent non-academic evaluation: an audit office, a government or EU review, or an NGO. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byCity of Chicago, Chief Data Officer (Department of Innovation and Technology at the order's signing)
Scale🏙️ City-wide

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 7 more in Chicago · 📊 Open data guide · 📡 Data & IoT projects

Executive Order 2012-2, signed 10 December 2012, told every Chicago department to publish its data to data.cityofchicago.org, name an open data coordinator and file an annual compliance report. The portal still runs — 911 datasets, crime records refreshed daily. The reporting did not: the Inspector General found none had been filed since 2014.

Live 📅 since 2012

📊 Impact

The portal carries 911 datasets and is current: Crimes - 2001 to Present was refreshed on 26 July 2026. The governance around it lapsed. The Office of Inspector General found on 23 March 2020 that the City does not comply with its own order — no Open Data Compliance Report since 2014, an Open Data Advisory Group that had not met since 2014 and then covered only 18 of 29 city agencies, and a Chief Data Officer post vacant for 18 months.

🎓 Lesson

The order lapsed under the mayor who signed it — the reports stopped in 2014, two years in. A duty created by executive order can be dropped without repealing anything, and nobody has to vote. New York put the same duty in a local law.

📡 Data & IoTOpen dataDigital government

Sources

↗ City of Chicago — Open Data Executive Order No. 2012-2The order itself, signed 10 December 2012 by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Blocks automated fetching (403); text verified through the Sunlight Foundation's transcription below and cited consistently by the OIG advisory.
↗ Sunlight Foundation Open Data Policy Hub — Chicago, IL executive order (10 December 2012)Independent transcription and analysis of the order. Sentence-level source for the duties: each agency shall make available online all appropriate data sets; the Mayor appoints a Chief Data Officer to coordinate implementation, compliance and expansion; each agency head designates an Open Data Coordinator; the CDO files compliance reports by July 15 each year. Also the source for the licence point — the order mandates Terms of Use developed by the technology department rather than granting an open licence.
↗ Chicago Office of Inspector General — Advisory Concerning the City of Chicago Data Portal (23 March 2020) archived copyThe independent audit and the entry's spine: 'An OIG inquiry has determined that the City does not comply with the requirements of Executive Order No. 2012-2.' The Mayor's Office agreed and committed to steps toward revitalising the Open Data Program.
↗ Chicago OIG — the advisory's findings on accuracy, consistency and usabilityPublished 23 March 2020Sentence-level source for every figure in the impact field: 'The City also had not published an Open Data Compliance Report since 2014'; 'the Chief Data Officer position remained vacant for 18 months'; 'The City's Open Data Advisory Group had not met since 2014 and, at that time, only included representatives from 18 of 29 City agencies.'
↗ Chicago Data Portal — dataset metadata API, Crimes 2001 to PresentPrimary currency check, read 26 July 2026: dataUpdatedAt 2026-07-26T11:15:11+0000. Also the licence evidence, at field level: licenseId 'SEE_TERMS_OF_USE', licenseName 'See Terms of Use'. There is no open licence deed on the portal's assets.
Show 3 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ Socrata Discovery API — Chicago portal catalogueScale figure, read 26 July 2026: 911 datasets. The unfiltered catalogue returns 2,009 assets, but that count includes charts, maps, files and filtered views derived from the datasets; only the dataset count is used in the entry.
↗ City of Chicago — Data Terms of UseWhat the order's mandated Terms of Use actually impose. Warranties disclaimed on an 'as is' basis, and an affirmative notice condition on reusers: applications using the data must carry the disclaimer 'This site provides applications using data that has been modified for use from its original source, www.cityofchicago.org, the official website of the City of Chicago.' Blocks automated fetching (403); text verified through indexed search.
↗ Data-Smart City Solutions — Chicago launches OpenGrid (20 January 2016)Kept as context, deliberately not merged into this entry. OpenGrid, the public map built by DoIT from the internal WindyGrid, launched 19 January 2016 under Apache 2.0 and still loads at opengrid.chicago.gov/opengrid/. Its landing page copyright is frozen at 2015 and the repository's newest commit is a documentation edit of 15 April 2024. No municipality outside Chicago was found to have adopted it.
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, 8 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-9dab366782ae6ee1 quantitative
The Office of Inspector General found on 23 March 2020 that the City does not comply with its own order — no Open Data Compliance Report since 2014, an Open Data Advisory Group that had not met since 2014 and then covered only 18 of 29 city agencies, and a Chief Data Officer post vacant for 18 months
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The OIG advisory of 23 March 2020 documents the compliance lapses against Executive Order 2012-2.
Caveat
The portal itself remains live and current — 911 datasets, with Crimes - 2001 to Present refreshed on 26 July 2026.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Chicago Office of Inspector General — Advisory Concerning the City of Chicago Data Portal (23 March 2020)
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 effective 2026-07-26 · created 2026-08-20

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

sha256:9600c516db41378caa295d3a77ecbba479cbe1bfbd0593cd0428b91ceec5bc03
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
1
of 1 claims mapped
8
source dossiers
3
publication dates recorded
1
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
City of Chicago, Chief Data Officer (Department of Innovation and Technology at the order's signing)
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

8 source dossiers

City of Chicago — Open Data Executive Order No. 2012-2 chicago.gov · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-cb08e624d8eb7fbf
Publisher
Name not classified · chicago.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 order itself, signed 10 December 2012 by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Blocks automated fetching (403); text verified through the Sunlight Foundation's transcription below and cited consistently by the OIG advisory.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Sunlight Foundation Open Data Policy Hub — Chicago, IL executive order (10 December 2012) opendatapolicyhub.sunlightfoundation.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-f7ac83ad635e115a
Publisher
Name not classified · opendatapolicyhub.sunlightfoundation.com
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

Independent transcription and analysis of the order. Sentence-level source for the duties: each agency shall make available online all appropriate data sets; the Mayor appoints a Chief Data Officer to coordinate implementation, compliance and expansion; each agency head designates an Open Data Coordinator; the CDO files compliance reports by July 15 each year. Also the source for the licence point — the order mandates Terms of Use developed by the technology department rather than granting an open licence.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Chicago Office of Inspector General — Advisory Concerning the City of Chicago Data Portal (23 March 2020) igchicago.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-dd29972adf5ca33d
Publisher
Name not classified · igchicago.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2020-03-23
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 ↗ · 2023-10-17
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The independent audit and the entry's spine: 'An OIG inquiry has determined that the City does not comply with the requirements of Executive Order No. 2012-2.' The Mayor's Office agreed and committed to steps toward revitalising the Open Data Program.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Chicago OIG — the advisory's findings on accuracy, consistency and usability igchicago.org · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-c3b96230a05ec04c
Publisher
Name not classified · igchicago.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2020-03-23
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

Sentence-level source for every figure in the impact field: 'The City also had not published an Open Data Compliance Report since 2014'; 'the Chief Data Officer position remained vacant for 18 months'; 'The City's Open Data Advisory Group had not met since 2014 and, at that time, only included representatives from 18 of 29 City agencies.'

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Chicago Data Portal — dataset metadata API, Crimes 2001 to Present data.cityofchicago.org · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-46fa29bf179caad5
Publisher
Name not classified · data.cityofchicago.org
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

Primary currency check, read 26 July 2026: dataUpdatedAt 2026-07-26T11:15:11+0000. Also the licence evidence, at field level: licenseId 'SEE_TERMS_OF_USE', licenseName 'See Terms of Use'. There is no open licence deed on the portal's assets.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Socrata Discovery API — Chicago portal catalogue api.us.socrata.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-78c9a16b87836065
Publisher
Name not classified · api.us.socrata.com
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

Scale figure, read 26 July 2026: 911 datasets. The unfiltered catalogue returns 2,009 assets, but that count includes charts, maps, files and filtered views derived from the datasets; only the dataset count is used in the entry.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
City of Chicago — Data Terms of Use chicago.gov · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-379240d4489a17df
Publisher
Name not classified · chicago.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

What the order's mandated Terms of Use actually impose. Warranties disclaimed on an 'as is' basis, and an affirmative notice condition on reusers: applications using the data must carry the disclaimer 'This site provides applications using data that has been modified for use from its original source, www.cityofchicago.org, the official website of the City of Chicago.' Blocks automated fetching (403); text verified through indexed search.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Data-Smart City Solutions — Chicago launches OpenGrid (20 January 2016) datasmart.hks.harvard.edu · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-c69d9fa6b03f0fc3
Publisher
Name not classified · datasmart.hks.harvard.edu
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2016-01-20
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

Kept as context, deliberately not merged into this entry. OpenGrid, the public map built by DoIT from the internal WindyGrid, launched 19 January 2016 under Apache 2.0 and still loads at opengrid.chicago.gov/opengrid/. Its landing page copyright is frozen at 2015 and the repository's newest commit is a documentation edit of 15 April 2024. No municipality outside Chicago was found to have adopted it.

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.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇺🇸 DataSF and San Francisco's Open Data Law · San Francisco San Francisco put the same duty in its administrative code and publishes the inventory as a dataset, so anyone can count what is missing. 🇺🇸 NYC Open Data and the 2012 Open Data Law · New York City New York wrote the same duty into a 2012 local law; Chicago's came by executive order, and the reports stopped two years in. 🇺🇸 Analyze Boston and the 2014 Open Data Executive Order · Boston Boston used an executive order too, but wrote in no reporting duty at all — so nothing lapsed, and there is nothing to audit.

Explore the wider context

🗺️ Your City's Problem Map Is Really a Map of Who Complains📖 Open data📖 Urban data platform (UDP)📖 Building performance standard (BPS)
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Chicago's Open Data Executive Order and Portal” — Chicago, United States. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/chicago-open-data-portal/ (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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