>> 
OGUNNUBI: We decided to go with Google Earth
Enterprise because we needed a tool that would
display our geographic information. We needed
something that was easy to use, something
that people knew how to use, something very
intuitive, something simple.
>> HOLLAND: Islington is a central London
borough, probably the second densest in the
UK. We've got a population of about 190,000.
For every square kilometer of land, we've
got 19 kilometers of road. So that needs to
be backed up with good, honest data.
>> VIRDEE: We started a project about four
years ago to collect all of our highways'
assets. So we started investigating how we
can display all of our asset layers on top
of the public Google globe. We spoke to some
of the Google guys, they came in, they demonstrated
what it was all about, put all our layers
on, slowly putting more and more layers on
top.
>> OGUNNUBI: Our imagery was captured by ourself.
We commissioned a company to fly over the
borough and take high-res pictures. We've
got images of all our assets, every single
thing that you could imagine--road markings
to boulevards, bus stops, dust bins, street
lights, trees.
>> HOLLAND: When we first experimented with
Google, we found it was very easy to use.
>> OGUNNUBI: Training hasn't really been much
of an issue. I've had to show a few people
how to use it. Training takes five, ten minutes.
In-depth, for training? 5, 15 minutes. But
training's never really an issue, 'cause it's
something that everybody's really familiar
with. I mean, my mother-in-law uses Google
Earth.
>> HOLLAND: Personally, the most rewarding
for me has been the anti-crime work that we've
done, the way that it's enabled us to actually
see where the social problems are.
>> THOMPSON: By using Google, it's helped
us to actually map where crime is, what particular
crimes are happening on particular roads,
be it cross from prostitution, drug dealing,
mugging. It's helped us to actually design
out this particular crime when we're redesigning
roads, be it improving lighting, removing
foliage, redundant walls, anything to improve
the general aesthetics and how that road is
actually used. Here's an area in Islington
that was brought to our attention by the local
police. From turning on the crime layers for
2006-2007, 2008-2009, I'm able to actually
see what crime was occurring in that area
before we actually started the scheme. It
enables me to actually start to design the
scheme before I actually get on the site to
meet the police or local residents. So I have
an idea already what I want to do. In this
particular incident, we will use bee hives
to actually prevent prostitutes from using
a particular area. There's a local businessman
who wanted to find areas so he could put in
beehives, and we suggested this particular
location. He was able to put in beehives,
and we were able to stop the prostitutes.
>> HOLLAND: I think one of the big changes
in culture has been the relationship between
our workforce and our residents. And one can
imagine that if it's taken two weeks to get
a boulevard fixed, then it's not been a very
good job. Um, the residents don't actually
look upon the men that do that work quite
favorably. But when you ring up or send an
email and somebody knocks on your door that
day and said, "Show me what you want me to
do. What's the problem?", and then proceeds
to fix it, then I think we've got real benefit.
They actually help people. They're empowered
to go there and make people happy. Not to
just get in their way.
>> SACKER: Going back a few years, it used
to be an inspector would go out to the job
first, look at it. Like, it could take two
or three days before or more, but now I think
at all get yous four hours. Used to be four
hours. We now cut it down to two. But we quite
often respond a lot faster than that. Half
hour, 15 minutes. This has cut our response
times down dramatically.
>> TOUSENT: Obviously now we got an onboard
computer. The job can come straight through
to me and even quickens the time on. So as
I'm on my way to one job, if a job is on the
way, I could actually go to that one and then
go and press on to my other job, so it cuts
it down even more. Less traveling time.
>> SACKER: It's nice when you do these things
and you do it so much quicker and better.
>> TOUSENT: You get praise.
>> SACKER: Yeah. People come out, they treat--
they greet you with a smile instead of growling
at you. So, you know, it does. It makes your
day.
>> HEATHER: So I've been in that area for,
altogether, it's 76 years. So I've seen a
lot of changes. They are very good, yeah.
I can't complain at all. You know, if I've
complained about something, within the week
it's done. So you can't really moan about
that, can you?
>> THOMPSON: Future advances for using the
Google mapping system is we're actually gonna
look at breaking crime down into particular
hours--day and nights. This enables us to
look even further into what particular types
of crime are happening and the particular
times they're occurring. This might mean if
more crimes are happening at a particular
location at night, we might need to improve
the lighting.
>> OGUNNUBI: We're also considering developing
a mobile app, enabling residents to be able
to literally just take a picture of that defect,
load it onto the mobile app on their handset.
That records on its geolocation, and that
feeds straight into our CRM system. And that
is a service request just there.
>> HEATHER: The people who live in Islington
are lucky, and I think that is why we've got
so many coming to live here. We're a very
popular borough.
