Two years ago, the city of Chattanooga adopted an "open data" policy that made public huge amounts of information gathered every day by local government agencies.
Now a small nonprofit organization is calling on Hamilton County government to follow suit.
Metro Ideas Project, an independent, nonprofit research startup based in Chattanooga, has released a new project, Open Hamilton, that argues as much.
A report and tool kit presents what benefits the group sees in adopting such a policy, which members say would enhance public access to information ranging from sheriff's office incident reports to tax and appraisal data.
The county already has multiple resources available online, such as property records, but Metro Ideas Project members think more can be done, and hope that by centralizing how that information is accessed the public will be able to take greater advantage of it.
"While sometimes an afterthought in urban policy discussions, counties actually provide a number of critical services and hold a lot of information about safety, health and property in our community," said Joda Thongnopnua, executive director of the Metro Ideas Project.
"That's why it can't just be our cities practicing data accountability. Rather, the public deserves an open Hamilton County. The release of this project is a strong first step in that direction."
The Chattanooga Open Data Portal, which offers more than 200 datasets, logged 1.3 million views in the 2016 fiscal year, according to newspaper archives. Users of the site have also requested the city add data on taxi cabs, beer and alcohol permits and Chattanooga Zoo animals.
The Metro Ideas Project tool kit includes a primary report outlining the benefits of an open data policy, case studies from three other counties including Nashville/Davidson, and an inventory of existing data already online and made available through the county government.
Thongnopnua and his co-workers hope Open Hamilton will help spur a county conversation on open data. To jump-start that dialogue, they highlighted some practical examples of how the change might improve existing government services.
Thongnopnua pointed to Montgomery County, Md., which he said used a similar model to identify 27 percent more violations in two months by reorganizing how the county conducted restaurant inspections. Rather than paying multiple visits to every restaurant every year, the county focused its manpower on places most likely to have violations.
"Officials are expected to save $2 million in personnel costs in the first year as a result," he said.
But it's not just restaurant inspections that could benefit from a more streamlined process directed by an open data policy. Property tax information could be made significantly easier to find and navigate, according to Metro Ideas Project.
After requesting nearly 2 million property records, the group coded 14 years of historical property data and built a web application for the public to explore everything from appraisal data to median comparisons throughout the county.
It remains to be seen how or when Hamilton County would adopt the open data policy that Metro Ideas Project is pitching, but Mike Dunne, a spokesman for County Mayor Jim Coppinger, said his office is open to the possibility.
"We think this is an interesting initiative and Hamilton County General Government will continue to evaluate the concept as we have in the past," Dunne said in a written statement.
"We believe Hamilton County General Government is extremely transparent for the citizens of Hamilton County and we will continue our efforts to make information available in the easiest and most efficient manner as we have always done."
Anyone interested is able to access Open Hamilton and its resources online at metroideas.org.
Contact staff writer Emmett Gienapp at egienapp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731. Follow on Twitter @emmettgienapp.