Prince William County Wins First Place Award for Technology Leadership from the Center for Digital Government and the National Association of Counties

Prince William County, VA – Prince William County won first place in the 2023 Digital Counties Survey Awards in the 250,000-499,999-population category. The annual award recognizes a distinguished group of counties that have worked hard to improve their digital, citizen and government experience through technology and leadership, and is sponsored by the Center for Digital Government (CDG) and the National Association of Counties (NACo). The county won second place in 2022 and third place in 2021.  

“It’s an honor for the county to win this award and confirms our strategic approach to investing in technology that helps better serve our community each and every day,” said Ann Wheeler, Chair of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. 

Prince William County earned first place this year by demonstrating a continued commitment to delivering technology services that are tightly aligned with the county’s seven strategic goals. For example, the Department of Information Technology supports the goal area of a safe and secure community by providing communications, applications, facilities, data and mobile technologies that improve response times for emergency responders. This includes advanced technologies to support resilient and redundant facilities, body-worn cameras, in-vehicle rugged mobile technology and location-based services. 

Other notable initiatives that contributed to the win include Prince William County’s complete modernization of technology, infrastructure and communications tools to operate on a high-speed, 400 GB backbone; a public demographics dashboard; continued progress on the county’s Technology Inclusion Initiative, which aims to deliver affordable, high-speed broadband access countywide, while ensuring all residents have the technology skills needed to thrive in a digital economy; and collaborating with regional jurisdictions on interoperability and cybersecurity. 

“This award confirms Prince William County’s commitment to providing modern, scalable technologies for service delivery; leadership in digital equity, access and inclusion; and ongoing efforts to advance regional collaboration, that together, create economic opportunities and advantages for every resident and our business community,” said County Executive Chris Shorter.  

“Winning a first-place award is testament to our IT staff and the county’s commitment to delivering exceptional digital government experiences to our residents, businesses, workforce and visitors across our community,” said Rob Mancini, chief information officer and director of the Department of Information Technology. “The Board of County Supervisors, along with the county’s executive leadership team, continue to foster an environment that enables our team to focus on innovation, efficiency and value every day.” 

The annual Digital Counties Survey Awards recognize the top 10 counties in five population size categories. This year, all five first place winners by population size hail from the National Capital Region and 12 counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia were recognized, placing Prince William County in good company and ranking Virginia among the top states in the nation for IT innovation.