This is 911, AI Speaking

I don’t know if this is widespread or how widespread it is, but over the last year or so, my local police department and my local fire department have resorted to an AI answering system. I can almost hear the conversations that led to this decision. It probably went something like this.

“Our department keeps losing funding while expectations of us keep rising. There is simply not a good enough reason to pay a human dispatcher to answer calls about kittens up trees. We can use AI to do that, and that way the calls will be directed properly and we’ll have more room on the payroll.”

In theory, like so many things, this makes sense. There’s one little problem, however. The AI answering system stinks. Let me explain.

Over the weekend, there was music playing so loudly in my neighborhood I felt like I was hosting a live band in my bedroom. No sound or sleepcast was able to drown out the “thud thud” of the bass or the “clang clang” of the cymbals or whatever horrible instrument it was. My town has a noise cutoff of 11:00 and it was now past midnight. I figured I would call the police, non emergency line, just to see if they could quiet things down.

Upon calling the non-emergency number I get greeted by the AI system. What’s the problem. I tried to simplify it because I now know that much about AI answering systems. “Noise disturbance.” It asked me for where the noise was coming from and I gave the road name because I didn’t know the exact address. It asked where I was calling from, so I gave it the same street name. “Sorry where are you located again?” I repeated the information.

“Please say your full name.”

Well, listen, I ain’t no rat. When you talk to a human dispatcher you can say you prefer not to give your name. AI dispatcher doesn’t have time for that nonsense. I hung up in frustration.

Here’s the thing. In my case nothing serious or concerning was going on, although if you keep me up past my bedtime you could see some ugly things. But what if someone has a concern about a neighbor they haven’t seen around for awhile? What if, as happened to me recently, a smoke alarm is going off for hours at a time in someone’s apartment and you just want to make sure that everybody is okay?

One of two things will happen. People will either give up like I did because the system is so crappy, or if they are really concerned they will call 911 to ensure they get a hold of someone. This could mean an actual increase in emergency calls, whereas a human dispatcher could have taken care of the smaller issues easily.

There are some things you should not use AI to skimp on, and I feel like dispatching for a local police department is one of those things.

What do you think?