Case Study: Cook County, Illinois

Local government workers in Cook County, Ill. used to spend a significant amount of time answering public records requests they received about opioid deaths. Because Cook County includes Chicago, the population is over 5 million—meaning there was a lot of data to chart for requests. In order to provide information to law enforcement and the public, Cook County became the first county of its size to map data in real time. It used to take hours, if not days, to pull this type of information for the DEA, local law enforcement, and the health department. But by incorporating data as it is reported each night into the map the following morning, their dashboard saves valuable time for public servants.

Cook County has also published all their historical data in an open format, allowing anyone to embed it in applications or websites as they see fit.