Santa Clara County serves two very different groups of constituents. Most residents interact with us infrequently through activities such as obtaining permits and licenses, paying taxes and using county parks and facilities or serving on a jury. At any given time, a much smaller portion of the county's residents need to use safety-net services such as the public hospital or social services, interact with the criminal justice system or find themselves in need of one of the county's medical specialties. These constituencies have very different interactions and most of the capabilities we provide serve one group or the other, but rarely both.
In 2019, the most pressing technology need for the county government will be driven by the acquisition of two new hospitals. Keeping these public hospitals open is very important for county residents, especially St. Louise, which is the only hospital in (or near) south Santa Clara County. To keep these hospitals open, the county is going to have to undertake a major integration of systems between the three hospitals and a complete update of the technology infrastructure at the acquired hospitals.
Our team continues to focus on streamlining our internal technology processes and capabilities. We're working on building the foundation of strong asset management, strong support processes and strong project and program management, to provide the foundation for technology service delivery to county staff and residents.
We are in the midst of a complete modernization of our public safety and justice program. Delivering the tools to enable the success of our public safety and justice activities and ensuring the solutions are modern and robust is critical for the county in 2019.
We're continuing our efforts to develop technology tools that make it easier for individuals to interact with the county and to improve services to underserved individuals and communities.
• We're developing an application to connect restaurants and grocery stores that have expiring foods with food banks and shelters that need the food, to ensure food doesn't go to waste and that our residents receive the food they need.
• Over the past several years, the county has developed a number of mobile apps to serve residents. These apps include everything from health inspections to property tax payments. Now, we're developing an integrated portal so that residents can find all things Santa Clara County in one convenient app.
• For the past several years, we've been redeveloping our public safety and justice technology portfolio with an emphasis on rehabilitation rather than punishment. This year, we'll be making tablets available in the jails to help inmates receive enrichment activities and stay in touch with families. We're going to be delivering solutions that allow the public defender and inmates to use tablets to work together on their defense, and we're providing tools to the re-entry team to help individuals transitioning out of custody meet their commitments and stay out of custody.
• We'll also be moving much of our permitting and licensing activity online. We hope features such as online plan submission will save trips to the county center.
In 2019 I expect that we'll continue to see autonomous-vehicle testing in the county but I don't think we'll see any big changes or full-scale deployments. There's still a lot of work to be done.
I think that government in general is still wrestling with how we'll make use of blockchain. AI and machine learning are another story. We are looking at some possibilities for using AI and ML to enable new capabilities, such as chatbots. It's a little too early to comment on specific applications, but I think we'll see some things in place in 2019.
The county may also bring technology to bear on two larger issues: homelessness; and traffic and growth. The homeless remain at crisis levels in this country and the county. While much of the solution rests on providing more below-market rent and supportive housing units, we're exploring how we can use data and technology to help support residents in housing to be successful and stay housed. We're also trying to reduce trips to the county center by providing more online services. In addition, our traffic engineers have deployed thousands of sensors on county-managed roads to ensure top quality traffic management. This will continue to be a priority for the county as our population grows, adding stress to our infrastructure.
