CitiStat
CitiStat is Baltimore City's performance management and accountability program, which helps turn priorities into action, data into decisions, and commitments into measurable service improvements. CitiStat holds agencies to a high standard of performance and problem-solves by setting goals for service effectiveness
About CitiStat
CitiStat is a disciplined, collaborative performance system that turns priorities and data into sustained service improvements residents and public servants can see and feel. Each Stat regularly convenes, bringing together agencies and city leaders.
What Citistat Does
CitiStat is Baltimore’s learning and accountability loop: a management routine that converts performance signals into decisions, commitments, and follow-through. CitiStat is a partnership with agencies, who own day-to-day operations and implementation from the start.
How It Works
A strong performance routine begins with a clear purpose, reliable enough data, a named sponsor, and an agency owner. Each session should produce learning, decisions, commitments, or a clear reason to change processes.
Why It Matters
Improvement starts with resident service requests, and transitions to the CitiStat program to implement systemic change. In CitiStat, problems are clearly defined, trusted data is used, commitments are assigned, and follow-up continues until conditions change.
What Success Looks Like
The work succeeds when agencies trust and use the numbers, the most important services show improvements residents can see and feel, and performance plans become working management tools rather than paperwork.
Why CitiStat Matters Now
City government is complex. Many of the problems residents experience are not caused by one person or one agency: they happen when risks are noticed too late, handoffs are unclear, data definitions vary, decisions linger without an owner, and follow-up is not tracked to closure.
CitiStat addresses those failure modes by creating a predictable cadence for truth, decision-making, and follow-through. The routine helps City leadership and agencies:
- Spot risks early and focus attention on the highest-leverage bottlenecks
- Clarify accountability through owners, due dates, evidence standards, and escalation paths
- Build trust in the numbers through shared definitions, data quality notes, and consistent documentation
- Reduce cycle time and backlogs in priority services by making work visible and manageable
- It integrates resident feedback, frontline workers' experiences, and operational data
- Document what changed so the work can survive staff transitions and leadership changes
Sessions
CitiStat runs through nineteen recurring Stats. Each Stat is a regular session focused on a specific service area, with the agency that owns it.
311 Stat Resident service request experience from intake to closure | Tech Stat Technology service reliability, project delivery, and IT governance | Capital Stat Capital project delivery risk, readiness, and coordination |
Clean Stat Cleanliness hotspots, illegal dumping, vacant lots, and public realm conditions | DGS Stat Facilities, fleet readiness, vendor performance, and internal service support | DOT Stat Streets, traffic safety, parking, traffic calming, streetlights, and resurfacing |
Downtown Stat Downtown RISE priorities, public realm, safety, cleanliness, and economic vitality | Finance Stat Revenue, procurement, grants, audit findings, payments, and fiscal operations | Fire and EMS Stat Life safety, EMS demand, prevention, readiness, and emergency response |
Health Stat Public health service performance, overdose strategy, environmental health, and contracts | Housing Stat Housing conditions, code enforcement, vacant buildings, and neighborhood stability. | HR and Labor Stat Hiring, vacancies, onboarding, classifications, labor processes, and workforce risks |
Permit Stat Permit cycle time, applicant communication, review steps, and transparency | Police Stat Public safety outcomes, priority places, nuisance businesses, and follow-up quality | Rec Stat Recreation, parks, forestry, programs, facilities, and staffing readiness |
Solid Waste Stat Trash, recycling, street sweeping, dirty alleys, dirty streets, and disposal constraints | Water Stat Water, wastewater, utility operations, infrastructure, and compliance risks | Workplace Safety Stat Training, safety committees, vehicle accidents, PPE, and readiness |
Youth Stat Cradle-to-career youth priorities, justice handoffs, early childhood, and career pathways |
History
CitiStat was founded in 1999 to apply data-informed performance management tools to all aspects of city government on behalf of the Mayor. Together with 311 (another Baltimore innovation), CitiStat reinvented how government services can be measured and managed.
Since its inception, CitiStat has won numerous awards for its contributions to government innovation and was studied in Robert Behn’s “The PerformanceStat Potential” (2014). In 2019, it merged with the Baltimore Innovation Team to form the Mayor’s Office of Performance and Innovation, centralizing the city’s data and design teams into a single office.
Mayor O’Malley instituted CitiStat in 1999 as the first of its kind to use data to enhance performance and accountability for City operations using the Four Tenets as a guide. CitiStat remains dedicated to and designed around those four foundational principles.