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Baltimore 911 describes geofencing, cloud telephony and AI tools as part of modernization; center reports full staffing
Summary
Director Tania Reddick said Baltimore’s 911 center is adopting geofencing, cloud phone infrastructure, AI transcription/translation tools and is planning ASL video contacts; she reported that the center is near or at full staffing following recruitment partnerships with city schools.
Tania Reddick, director of Baltimore City 911, described recent technology upgrades and operational changes and said the center is largely staffed after a focused recruitment push.
Technology and event operations: Reddick described a geofencing deployment used at Artscape that divided the event into seven zones so call takers assigned to the event could receive calls in a focused footprint; the city used remote stations in the Emergency Operations Center during Artscape and said the approach allowed event calls to be routed to dedicated staff. She described a cloud‑based phone system (part of NextGen 911 migration steps) that the center moved to in 2024 and said the cloud/IP architecture improves location accuracy and resilience.
AI, language access and video: Reddick said the 911 center is experimenting with AI‑driven phone transcription, radio‑text tools and translation services and is preparing to pilot video contacts for American Sign Language (ASL) and other non‑English communications. She said the center also uses bots to triage non‑emergency traffic during high call volume to preserve call‑taker availability.
Staffing and partnerships: Reddick and the CAO noted the center has benefitted from targeted recruitment partnerships with Baltimore City Public Schools and other community outreach and that center staffing levels are now described as close to full. The CAO said the administration is exploring a unified communications office to bring 311 and 911 closer for improved operational alignment.
Next steps: Reddick said the city is pursuing federal and state funding to upgrade computer‑aided dispatch (CAD) and that the department is exploring how to braid funding sources and capital plan investments to support a CAD replacement in the coming years.
