VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — AI is now being used in Volusia County’s 911 call center to handle non-emergencies. The technology is paid for by the sheriff’s budget, so we went straight to him to ask how accurate this system is.
The sheriff said the new technology frees up dispatchers to handle serious emergencies, which has cut down on overtime. It’s also allowed them to answer 96 to 100 percent of calls in less than 10 seconds.
However, some people we spoke to say they’d still prefer human interaction.
“Especially since mental health is a very sensitive topic, so for somebody to not get that one-on-one that they need, it could really affect somebody,” said Alicia Halloran.
“You cannot get the feeling across when you’re talking to a machine, talking to AI,” said Felix Rodriguez.
The sheriff admits the system isn’t without some flaws.
“It’s having problems discerning some of the streets because you think of some of the names of our streets in our county, we can’t say them. Let alone you say them to AI. So those are the things we have to go in and correct,” said Chitwood.
The system costs between 60 cents and a dollar per call and has been in use since August.
Channel 9’s Demie Johnson asked the sheriff what happens if the system is wrong.
“It says though that it can detect between an emergency or a non-emergency. What if it’s wrong? Could be life or death,” Demie asked.
“The issue, the good issue is, it is monitored all the time by a supervisor. So, there is a real person, only one person, monitoring it to make sure that everything that AI is doing is correct. So, it’s not like it’s left alone. It’s monitored in real time,” Chitwood responded.
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