Antioch Police Department wants to use AI agents for non-emergency calls. Human dispatchers will continue to respond to 911 calls, but some people in Antioch did not agree with the proposal.
Antioch Police Department wants to add AI agents to its dispatch center. These agents handle only non-emergency calls and summarize and report detailed notes to dispatchers.
Humans will still respond to 911 calls.
Lt. Michael Melone said the department responds to more than 200,000 non-emergency calls a year and said the lack of dispatchers makes it impossible to meet this demand while also responding to 911 calls.
The hope is that AI agents will be able to address the problem.
“This allows 911 dispatchers to focus on emergency calls, and when they have a break, they can review incoming non-emergency calls and refer them to officers for response,” he explained.
Many residents did not participate in this effort.
“AI is a technology, so what happens if your Wi-Fi breaks down or has a glitch? AI could be a game-changer,” Yarezi Farias said.
“It’s not real. You have to call a real person,” Victor Gonzalez said.
Some people agree with this idea.
“I think that’s a good thing in non-emergency situations, especially when you’re getting a lot of calls,” David Wade said.
Michael Leininger, a retired San Jose Police Department officer, believes police departments need to educate the public about the benefits of technology that they don’t yet know about.
“They need to be clear about the purpose and how it works for them, so they can feel more comfortable with it,” Leininger said.
He also said mistakes made by AI agents could have repercussions if not properly reviewed.
“An automation mistake could potentially cost someone’s life. This is a work in progress,” he said.
Proposals for these AI agents will be presented to the city council on Tuesday. The lieutenant said if approved, the agents would be deployed within a few weeks.
