This summer we all wince when we see how much it costs to buy a tank of gas for our own cars, just imagine if you had to fill up all the buses, fire trucks and police cars in town.

A hot topic during the Technology Summit portion of the 2008 National Association of Counties Conference held on July 11th in Kansas City, Missouri (and everywhere else as of late) was dealing with rising fuel costs. Faced with the combination of shirking tax revenues and rising gas prices, local leaders are in need of strategies to reduce to the amount of time county vehicles spend on the road. A market that has tremendous possibility for expansion is video conferencing technologies. Harris County Texas CIO Steven Jennings spoke of using video conferencing for a wide variety of functions including connecting telecommuters, promoting distance learning and court arraignments. One of the most interesting ideas he spoke of was creating "video inmate visitation centers", which serve the dual purpose of providing visitation privileges to inmates whose families may not of able to afford travel to remote prison locations, as well as reducing the potential for contraband to be smuggled into these facilities.

At a later seminar on Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS), Mr. Harris spoke of how Harris County has reduced the amount of driving that police officers must do by deploying mobile AFIS systems. Instead of transporting an uncooperative suspect back to the station for fingerprinting, officers can utilize mobile devices to collect prints in the field. He added that most suspects quickly decide to disclose their identities when they learn that an AFIS device is present.

Another topic that sparked quite a bit of discussion was how county officials plan to engage citizens aged 11-25, also known as the "Millennials". Being the only member of the summit who fell into this age range provided me with a unique perspective on the issue. I was quite impressed by the degree of importance that county officials placed on engaging members of my age group in the governing process. There is no "quick fix" to this issue, but the officials present illustrated their strong interest and desire to incorporate the technologies that "Millennials" use on a daily basis, into the governing process.