Two Wisconsin Counties Using AI to Handle Non-Emergency Calls
La Crosse County system has handled 40,000 calls so far. Waukesha gearing up.
Artificial Intelligence. (CC0 Public Domain)
Two Wisconsin counties are now using artificial intelligence to handle non-emergency calls.
In May, La Crosse County started using the AI platform Aurelian to help people who called the non-emergency number. Waukesha County is testing a similar system and has plans to fully implement it by the end of the year.
Cory Lynch, the operations supervisor at La Crosse County Public Safety Communications, said the new AI system has handled over 40,000 calls so far.
“This isn’t taking the spot of any of the dispatcher staff,” Lynch said. “This is a force multiplier. It’s a tool to make the job more efficient.”
The La Crosse County Communications Center handles all non-emergency calls made to police departments in the county. Lynch said many people who call the number often have simple requests, like asking for help with paying a parking citation or for information about the jail or courthouse.
“By virtue of being a 24/7 department, we’ve just become a default for anything…related to municipalities or police departments or law enforcement,” Lynch said.
Before the system was used, Lynch said dispatchers would often have to place someone who called the non-emergency line on hold to take a call for someone who called 911 with an actual emergency.
“The AI agent can handle that without putting them on hold, and can direct them to somebody that’s even more knowledgeable than the dispatcher is in certain areas,” Lynch said.
“It’s allowing the dispatcher to focus on the higher priority, the higher acuity calls for service,” he added.
When someone calls the non-emergency line in La Crosse County, the AI agent — or “Ava” — answers. If someone calls with a question on how to pay a parking citation, “Ava” will ask where the ticket was issued and will forward the call to that specific municipality.
If someone who is experiencing an emergency calls the non-emergency line, Lynch said the system picks up certain “hot words” and redirects that caller to a 911 dispatcher. A statement from La Crosse County also said any caller can request to speak with a human anytime during the phone call.
Waukesha County will begin using a similar system by the end of the year, according to Chris Becker, the operations manager for Waukesha County Communications. The move comes as the Waukesha County Communications Center is short about five full-time employees.
“Our call-takers can go from providing CPR instructions on one call to answering the next call, and it’s a question about Fourth of July fireworks,” Becker said. “That’s the stuff that they shouldn’t have to worry about.”
Becker said the AI system can send a text to a caller with information about parade routes or where to watch Fourth of July fireworks depending on where they live.
“The goal would be to eliminate the calls that our dispatchers shouldn’t have to see or shouldn’t have to take,” Becker said.
Wisconsin is not the first place these systems have been used. Communities in Michigan and Minnesota are also using the technology. Lynch said eight other Wisconsin counties have reached out to La Crosse County to ask about how the system works.
Kyle Cranmer, a physics professor and director of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Data Science Institute, said he understands why communities would be interested in implementing the technology because of staffing issues. But he also said the change should be communicated to residents so callers won’t be surprised.
“Because right now, when you hear AI, you hear about all sorts of different things and plenty of things to be worried about,” Cranmer said.
These 2 Wisconsin counties are using AI to handle non-emergency calls was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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