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Chesapeake officials briefed on pilot to use Amazon Connect for nonemergency public-safety calls
Summary
At a Jan. 21 work session, city officials reviewed a plan to pilot Amazon Connect, an AI-powered system to answer nonemergency public-safety calls with the goal of reducing dispatcher workload and improving 911 answer times.
Chesapeake City Council was briefed Jan. 21 on a planned pilot to use Amazon Connect, an artificial-intelligence system, to answer the city’s nonemergency public-safety phone line and reduce pressure on 911 telecommunicators.
The briefing, led by Lieutenant Justin Bowman, the city’s 9-1-1 coordinator, outlined staffing and call-volume pressures driving the effort and described how the system would work. "Our current staffing is we have 46 of 68 positions filled. We have a 33% vacancy," Bowman said, citing the center’s vacancies and overtime. He told council the system would be used only on the nonemergency line and that callers could always opt to reach a live dispatcher: "Amazon Connect ... will only be for our nonemergency line. It will not be for the 9 1 1 line."
Why it matters: City staff said freeing dispatchers from routine, nonurgent calls should make more telecommunicators available to answer 911 calls, improve compliance with National Emergency Number Association (NENA) answer-time standards, and reduce…
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