this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2026
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Everyone should read before reacting:
This makes sense. A big thing happens that you are aware of. Geolocated calls from that area flood in. An operator, who could be getting useful info, has to handle a flood of "Guess what I just saw!"
Note that I think they should spend the money on more operators instead, but at least this seems like it has good guardrails.
Except that could be done without AI. Just have a recording that says "we are aware of ... taking place near you, are you calling about this ? “, then answer with yes/no.
No need for bullshit AI.
My understanding from other articles is caller satisfaction is greater with the TTS system, and it uses voice IVR to triage of they have additional information. AI is not bullshit in and of itself. This product seems barely diffeent from what they provided with APEX.
Recordings also can't auto respond with updates to the caller like this can, which is a pretty nice feature, even if it's just TTS.
You know what's great about the valley callers who don't make it?
No bad survey results!
My aunt was pissed when she found a hospital satisfaction survey addressed to her mother, a few weeks after her mom died at that hospital.
Can you share articles, interested how design a dynamic IVR to handle unfolding event and update prompts in realtime as new information is added to original incident.
Have you ever met humans? That would be a recipe for “no I’m not calling about that, I want a human” just to get to a human and say you’re calling about exactly that.
How many operators to handle say 100 calls in 5 minutes? Now imagine the cost to staff a small 911 center to ensure your can handle those calls 24/7. The money doesn't exist.
Butts in seats don't exist right now either. As long as the fancy ivr allows the caller to reach a human with minimal effort, this seems like a scary sounding but neat assistant to a problem without a real solution.
Well it wouldn't cost much cause you'd only need to employ them for a very short amount of time on occasion. Just have a large team of trained staff on call - its just that simple!
Listen to yourself. Have a large team of trained staff on call. How much do you think that costs? No go on guess. Do some calculations. The people do not exist to fill the seats. The money does not exist to pay the non-existent people. This is an attempt to make an already shitty situation better.
I work in this industry and I read the article. I understand what they are doing. I hate AI but this seems reasonable.
yeah no shit...
So did I completely misread your comment? LOL
I feel like i was pretty clearly joking.
It went over my head. Sorry. Everything is not the onion these days.
Idk what bulb vegetables have to do with this. We're discussing AI use by the New Orleans Police
So, say a tower block fire happens at 2 am. You're getting 50 calls a minute, 20% from residents and the rest from people calling to say they see a fire.
How long would it take for your trained staff to spring into action compared to an on demand AI? And are you paying your on-call staff to wait, or only when they're on the phone?
edit: I'm thinking about the Grenfell Towers. I listened to the BBC's coverage of the enquiry, and it was rough. Gave me a new appreciation for what emergency responders do.
Thank you for your insight. I had logistical questions I thought you might could answer, but I see now that I was wrong about that.
Why can you not see that im clearly making a joke. A large team of trained staff on call for emergencies which they'd rush in suddenly to deal with calls like once a year. You dont think that sounds so absurd that its clearly not "just that simple"?
You don't need AI for that. Automated phone answering systems do exist, and can redirect people.
This is basically a beefed up IVR with better customer satisfaction reports, so.. yes.
But as I said in the other comment, giving updates to callers is something a standard answering system can't do.
Even assuming perfect conditions - where the caller very clearly states what's happening and the AI agent understands everything properly - this is a waste of resources. Just hire more operators dawg. It's really not that complicated.
And then think about what happens outside of those perfect conditions. So pretty much most calls.
Have offered your recruiting skills/services to them? The nationwide 911 operator/dispatcher shortage has been a problem for years, so if you find it easy or uncomplicated to recruit them, then your services might be very valuable.
(Yes, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here by assuming that that was an informed opinion.)
And if someone tries to call with new unreported information about an already reported incident? Decision tree or geolocation routes caller to recorded information. No way of knowing if information is important or not without talking to the caller first. Possible downside is far greater than possible benefits.
Edit Multiple calls about shots in neighborhood, if victim is last to call are they forced to listen to an update before triage allows transfer? No sir I don't like it.
Maybe this is an improvement in this location, but as many have said a staffing issue.
Functional societies have costs, often those costs are far less than dysfunctional societies.
I wish this were pinned at the top. It seems like almost nobody reads beyond the headline.
This is one of the few actually cool and useful implementariins to me. It reminds me of my work writing systems to detect antimicrobial issues in hospitals.
A shame it's getting so much hate, but they did choose to brand with "AI" so they get what they ask for.
Joe's Apartment, the 911 call center be like