Understaffed 911 Centers Turn to AI to Handle ‘Non-Emergency’ Calls

Aurelian, an AI voice assistant startup, has raised $14 million in funding to help understaffed 911 call centers manage “non-emergency” calls more efficiently.

TechCrunch reports that emergency response centers across the United States are facing a critical staffing shortage, leading to increased pressure on dispatchers and potentially compromising public safety. Aurelian, a startup that began by automating appointment bookings for hair salons, has pivoted to address this issue by developing an AI voice assistant designed to handle non-emergency calls for 911 dispatch centers.

Aurelian’s journey began when a client’s hair salon was constantly disrupted by a nearby school’s carpool line blocking their parking lot. When the salon owner called the city’s non-emergency line, she was put on hold for 45 minutes before reaching a dispatcher. This incident prompted Keenan to investigate the inner workings of municipal non-emergency response call centers, revealing that the same personnel often handle both emergency and non-emergency calls.

Aurelian’s AI voice agent is trained to triage non-urgent issues such as noise complaints, parking violations, and stolen wallet reports, which do not require an immediate response from an officer or can be resolved without dispatching personnel to the scene. The AI system is designed to recognize genuine emergencies and promptly transfer those calls to a human dispatcher. For non-emergency situations, the AI collects essential information and either generates a report or communicates the details directly to the police department for follow-up action.

Since its launch in May 2024, Aurelian’s AI assistant has been deployed in over a dozen 911 dispatch centers, including those serving Snohomish County, Washington; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Kalamazoo, Michigan. The adoption of Aurelian’s technology is primarily driven by the consistent understaffing of emergency call centers, a direct consequence of the high-pressure nature of dispatching, which ranks among the top 10 industries with the highest turnover rates. Dispatchers often work overtime, with reports of 12- to 16-hour workdays in some counties.

The company and its supporters claim that Aurelian’s solution is not replacing existing human staff but rather filling positions that call centers have been unable to hire for due to the challenging nature of the job. Aurelian believes that its AI assistant can provide much-needed relief to 911 operators.