Putting Big Data to Work in Government: The Case of the United States Border Patrol

Abstract

Investigating how the public sector adopts technologies to process and analyze very large datasets is crucial for understanding governance in the digital age. The authors of this article examine a large government agency, the United States Border Patrol (USBP), an organization that is in the early phases of building big data capabilities. They argue the wide-scale adoption of big data analytics will require trial-and-error processes coordinated by organizational leadership in partnership with front-line employees who make the technology relevant to their needs in the field.

The future of public administration research: An editor's perspective

“…While some aspects of the public sector have embraced the new frontier head-on, others have seen it as a challenge. Some governments, for example, have begun using social media as an engagement tool (Schmidthuber et al, 2021) and some have begun using data analytics to improve their decision making (Coulthart & Riccucci, 2021), but others have lagged in the use of technological advancements within public administration (Mergel et al, 2016). As this area continues to grow, we would encourage research into how emerging technologies can improve public-sector outcomes.…”

A New Era and New Concepts in the Study of Race in Public Administration

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