People are navigating around the artificial intelligence answering system for the Penobscot Regional Communications Center’s non-emergency line, the center’s deputy director told commissioners Tuesday.
While people aren’t used to AI answering when they make calls to public safety, they are used to it when calling corporations, which means they’re experienced at navigating past the system to a human, said Deputy Director Bradley Fitzgerald said at a Penobscot County Commission meeting.
As a result, the AI system is not capturing as many non-emergency calls as it likely could, Fitzgerald said.
AI answering was part of the department’s solution to being understaffed, with dispatchers overwhelmed by non-emergency calls, especially when there is inclement weather. People will call to ask when their power will be restored or call at 6 a.m. to ask when their road will be plowed.
The AI answering service, through Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon, is only for the non-emergency line, not when people call 911. It answers calls for “very low level, non-emergent” issues such as animal control or fireworks, Fitzgerald said.
If a caller gets through to a person for those low level issues, they may soon be redirected to the AI answering, Fitzgerald said. The department is working on a new call flow they hope to implement in the next month and that’s part of the potential change, he said.
Eight positions in the department are open, and finding quality applicants has been difficult, Fitzgerald said.
The county dispatch center also has a new online system that allows people to report non-emergency and non-time sensitive issues. The form lets people choose if they want to be anonymous and provides space for details of an issue, as well as photos and video.
People can reach the non-emergency line at 207-945-4636, but they should call 911 for emergencies or anything that is time sensitive, Fitzgerald said.
