The Department Innovation webpage helps vendors understand current challenges and areas of interest for innovative solutions. Each City department has unique needs, and this page highlights the types of solutions they are hoping to discover through the IT Innovation Hub. By sharing this information, the City aims to help vendors tailor their ideas and submissions to better support City services, improve operations, and enhance the lives of San José residents.

Current challenges and innovation interests by Department

Police

The San José Police Department (SJPD) is focused on modernizing key services to improve public safety and reduce strain on staff.

• Report writing: Officers spend significant time documenting incidents. Tools that streamline report writing can free up time for community engagement and patrol.

• 9-1-1 Center improvements: The department seeks smart triage tools to redirect non-emergency calls away from 9-1-1 dispatch. Systems like Prepared, Hyper, or Aurelian that help route low-risk calls to non-emergency services are of high interest.

• Reducing manual work: SJPD welcomes IT solutions that reduce repetitive administrative tasks. These may include scheduling, digital forms, or AI tools that summarize data or categorize incidents.

The department is open to exploring technology that enhances officer efficiency, improves emergency response, and supports a better experience for San José residents.

Public Works

The San José Department of Public Works focuses on capital project delivery and animal welfare and is looking to leverage tools to increase automation.

• Event Management & Room Reservation: Seeking a single unified platform that can help manage events and space reservations efficiently and create and distribute work order details for setup teams.  

• Animal Services Booking Site: Seeking a Service-Based booking tool that supports dynamic forms, real-time field validation, recurring appointments, slots, self-service bookings, reschedule/cancel appointments, irregular scheduling, third-party integrations, has a master calendar, secure access and data storage, anonymous access, and booking limits per day, week, month, and user.

Transportation

The San José Department of Transportation (DOT) is focused on modernizing key services to improve public safety and reduce strain on staff.

• Automated Protected Bicycle Lane Debris Removal : Innovations in safety for bicycle lanes users through infrastructure improvements such as protected and raised barriers are unable to have debris cleared by our street sweepers.  This is resulting in teams manually having to remove the debris on these streets, creating an unanticipated strain on resources.

• Unauthorized Utility Box Theft Alerts: DOT is interested in exploring solutions that act as a "ring" type solution to provide alerts or detect when utility boxes are being accessed without authorization, resulting in theft and infrastructure damages.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 

For more details about the City’s strategic initiatives, visit the City Service Areas and Focus Areas webpage. Additional information on strategic planning areas from the department may be found on department webpages.