City Unveils New Texting Option to Provide Information for Residents

The City of Chicago’s 311 City Services and the Department of Innovative Technology (DoIT) are employing the latest in technology to provide Chicago residents and visitors with answers to commonly asked questions. Now, requests for information can be delivered via text message – without placing a phone call.

“We studied the types of information requests received when calling 311 and decided that we should explore ways of providing answers to routine requests and hopefully decrease customer wait times and call volume for 311 operators,
freeing them to concentrate on other calls such as requests for City services, said Audrey L. Mathis, Director, 311 City Services. “Chicago residents already send and receive substantial amounts of information via text message, so it was
a matter of combining the types of information we could provide with this delivery method.”

Many of the people calling 311 on mobile devices are simply seeking information, and thus are not generating a service request. In fact, calls that 311 operators simply provide the phone number for an outside agency or a City Department
represent almost half of the top 20 information-only calls.

The new 311 ChiTEXT Text Messaging service allows users to select an option from a menu of information and receive a response in the form of an authentic text message from the City of Chicago.

Residents would begin by texting the word “Chicago” to “311311” for all major cell phone carriers. Message and data rates may apply. An automated response would ask for the type of information the person is seeking, either:

• Contact information (for a government agency or public utility)
• Location search (ward and aldermanic, police beat and district information)
• Vehicle services (to locate a towed or relocated vehicle)

Response services include:

• “ChiCONTACT” - retrieves contact information searches to obtain phone number, url (internet) and address of the requested agency or utility
• “ChiWARD” - provides ward, name of Alderman, office and phone number
• “ChiPOLICE” - sends beat/district information based on the address provided, along with the police station location and phone number
• “ChiTOW” - locates towed/relocated vehicles based on the license plate number given, and provides date of tow/relocation, location and phone number of the facility where the car was placed

The technology behind the ChiTEXT service was developed by Motorola. "Motorola is dedicated to providing innovative solutions to help our customers more efficiently deliver information and services to the public, said Tim Boyle, vice president application product and solutions, Motorola Solutions. ”By working closely with the City of Chicago we were able to develop this ChiTEXT text messaging service to serve residents on-the-go, and allow 311 operators the ability to focus on calls where city services are being requested."

“This information service will help to maximize resources and provide information to Chicago residents and visitors in a timely manner,” said Mathis. “Texting is very popular, so as this program progresses, we hope to offer additional services
while communicating with users in this high-tech manner.” For more information regarding ChiTEXT, please visit the City’s website at www.cityofchicago.org/311.

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