The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office launched an AI call system to streamline non-emergency calls, improving efficiency without replacing dispatchers.
SAN DIEGO — The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office officially launched an artificial intelligence call system Friday designed to streamline non-emergency calls and reduce wait times for callers seeking assistance.
The system, developed by Hyper, uses AI technology to answer non-emergency line calls and direct people to appropriate resources. Officials emphasized that the system does not replace dispatchers and will not answer 911 calls.
“When you call the non emergency line you will no matter what get in touch with a live person this is just getting you to the right person quicker,” said Captain Nathan Rowley, SD Sheriff’s Communication Center.
Rowley notes they spent about six months preparing for the rollout, addressing a significant operational challenge.
Before the system launched, all calls were routed to a single queue on a first-come, first-served basis, creating substantial wait times. “So this created unfortunately a lot of situations where people were on hold for five or ten minutes and sometimes even up to 15 minutes waiting just to talk to somebody and obviously it be very frustrating for them to wait on hold and then to talk to a dispatcher to find out they called or that they had to call a different number or call a completely different agency,” said Captain Nathan Rowley, SD Sheriff’s Communication Center.
The AI system routes calls based on caller’s needs. The system asks callers a few quick questions before transferring them to the appropriate person or agency. Calls immediately transfer to a dispatcher if the system cannot understand the request, if language services are needed, if something seems unusual, or if the request falls outside standard procedures.
“Really, it’s kind of a win-win and it never takes the place of the human being on the other line, really. What this does is just get people to the right human being quicker versus trying to take the place of anybody,” said Captain Nathan Rowley, SD Sheriff’s Communication Center.
Nikolas Behar, Cybersecurity Professor at USD, explained the technology. “So this new AI that’s being rolled out by the sheriff’s department is going to be used to answer the non-emergency line and this is based on a type of AI called agentic, AI which is going to become more common so that AI can act independently and it’s especially going to become common with call centers and answering automated phone lines so in this particular case AI will answer the phone and it will try to help the caller,” said Nikolas Behar, Cybersecurity Professor, USD.
All interactions with the system will be recorded and transcribed in real time, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The AI system currently operates in English and Spanish.