8.26.24 – GovTech
Emergency dispatch workers face a flood of calls that don’t require immediate assistance, or don’t even seem serious. Versaterm’s newest product aims to reduce that problem — and the stress on call takers — via software and AI.
Complaints about wrong orders at cafes. Questions about the time. Panic over a spider inside a house.
As emergency call takers know, not every call that comes via 911 concerns a genuine emergency — some of those calls into dispatch centers, in fact, border on the absurd.
A new product release from Canada-based public safety technology supplier Versaterm stands as the latest example of companies and agencies in this space trying to reduce the burden of nonemergency calls coming into 911 centers.
The company recently commercially released its Versaterm CallTriage offering. It uses artificial intelligence and virtual agents to help separate calls according to type and importance.
Callers that don’t require immediate attention from first responders — or no attention at all from them — can still receive what a statement called “relevant resources via SMS or a web page link.”
That, in turn, can reduce 911 hold times and “emergency line overload” while helping to make sure that real emergencies get quicker attention, according to Versaterm. As 911 centers face staffing shortages, such a tool can help reduce stress and improve call taker morale, the company says.
Versaterm says this new product can work “seamlessly alongside any computer-aided dispatch and call-handling system.”
The product can gather call and web content into a single platform, complete with a dashboard. Agency-specific optimization can come via transcript review and playback of caller recordings. The product also helps officials better identify frequent callers.
“Versaterm CallTriage enables public safety agencies to provide better service to their community by expanding call center capacity and automatically resolving many routine requests,” said Rohan Galloway-Dawkins, Versaterm chief product officer, in the statement. “Our smart virtual agent provides another way for community members to engage with the agency and be directed to the help they need.”
As Versaterm puts its newest product into the market, agencies throughout the U.S. are working to better sift important calls from nonemergency requests and nuisances.
In Iowa, for instance, the Des Moines Fire Department — where about 35 percent of calls for service are nonemergency, according to a recent report — a new program has two paramedics “visiting high-volume users and addresses that originate frequent calls.”
The idea is to work with such people to proactively get them the resources they need, which then might lead to reduced calls via 911.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Police Department — facing a 60 percent rate of nonemergency calls coming into dispatch — reportedly used a public relations campaign to encourage use of 311 and other nonemergency avenues for residents