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Mayor's Office Deploys 'SCOUT' Teams to Track Snow Conditions

By DNAinfo Staff on January 12, 2011 2:02pm

By Jill Colvin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — Teams of city workers were out on the streets monitoring snow conditions throughout the day Wednesday as New Yorkers dug out from yet another snowstorm.

The "SCOUT" teams (street condition observation units) rode around in SUVs equipped with video cameras, which transmitted live footage of ground conditions to the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), the Department of Sanitation, the Mayor's Office and even the mayor's iPad.

The teams were deployed Wednesday morning to follow up on reports that some sidewalks were still covered by snow left by the post-Christmas blizzard, Elizabeth Weinstein, director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations, said.

Weinstein said the teams would be sent to check out complaints from 311, community groups and elected officials later on Wednesday.

"They (SCOUT) will be really responsive to the community going forward," Weinstein said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters at the OEM headquarters in Brooklyn Wednesday morning that he'd watched some of the feedback earlier in the morning and the streets he saw looked clear. Still, he said, the technology wasn't really for him.

"It's really not designed for the mayor, it's designed for the people deploying equipment," he said.

In addition to the SCOUT teams, officials said the Sanitation Department would equip all 1,700 sanitation trucks with new GPS devices as well as two-way radios that would allow drivers to file real-time reports about conditions on the ground, including whether they’d found any stuck vehicles.

The GPS systems cost about $40 a month, Bloomberg said.

"Rather than just being able to say 'plowed' or 'I’ve covered this street,' they’ll actually be able to give some detail to sanitation and ultimately the public about the conditions of that street once they’ve passed it," Weinstein said.

And they already appear to be coming in handy.

Bloomberg said that one of the 50 trucks currently equipped with the GPS systems got stuck in the snow while clearing streets Tuesday night.

Because of the device, the driver was able to press a button alerting the Department of Sanitation and nearby trucks that he was stuck, Bloomberg said.