{"resourceId":"cbs-chicago-lake-county-in-911-ava-nonemergency-20261006","versions":[{"version":"external-cbd8b048549702e83a28cd22cc0b257e03ba44aee1d35405b3ce249c2715f052","resource":{"id":"cbs-chicago-lake-county-in-911-ava-nonemergency-20261006","title":"CBS Chicago: Lake County 911 (Indiana) says Aurelian's AVA answered 35,000+ non-emergency calls in six months, with staff checking its work","organization":"Lake County 911 (Indiana) / Aurelian","sector":"County consolidated 911 center for police, fire and EMS","geography":"United States (Indiana)","publishedAt":"2026-10-06","publicationDate":"2026-10-06","eventDate":null,"sourceName":"CBS News Chicago","sourceLabel":"Local TV investigative-team report on Lake County 911's AI non-emergency call taker","sourceUrl":"https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/lake-county-911-ava-ai-call-taker/","evidenceClass":"independent-reporting","outcomeClass":"emerging","topics":["accessibility-workforce","operating-model"],"finding":"CBS News Chicago reported (updated Oct 6, 2026) that Lake County 911 in Indiana, which takes calls for 44 police, fire and EMS agencies, uses Aurelian's AVA to answer non-emergency calls amid a dispatcher staffing shortage. The center's director said AVA answered more than 35,000 non-emergency calls in six months, is not taking dispatch jobs, and that a staff member still checks its work. Aurelian's CEO said 70% of an average center's calls are not 911 calls, that the company serves more than 60 agencies, and that AVA handled up to 300 simultaneous calls in training.","sledRelevance":"A large consolidated center dispatching fire and EMS as well as police has put AI on its non-emergency line explicitly as a staffing response. It adds a new jurisdiction and a volume figure to a product already spreading across Midwest dispatch centers, and it names human review of the AI's work as a standing cost.","evidence":"Local reporting with on-record statements from the center director and the vendor's CEO; no accuracy, transfer, misroute or caller-satisfaction data. The archive already holds AVA deployments in Waukesha, Dane, Ozaukee, Akron, Grays Harbor and La Vergne; this is a new agency and source, not a repeat.","architectureImplications":"Vendor voice agent on the non-emergency trunk in front of human call takers; concurrency is the claimed advantage, with up to 300 simultaneous calls in vendor training, not in live use.","governanceImplications":"Human checking of AI output is described but its scope, sampling rate and error handling are not; no published performance reporting.","securityPrivacyImplications":"Not addressed in the report; recordings and caller data handling by the vendor should be confirmed.","caveats":"Vendor statistics (70% non-911 share, 60+ agencies, 300 simultaneous calls) are the CEO's claims. The article's sentence that AVA 'has taken more than 444,000 calls so far this year' appears to describe the center's total volume and conflicts with the 35,000 figure; we rely on the 35,000-in-six-months figure attributed to the director.","streamIds":["emergency-services"],"roles":{"sales":"Frame Lake County as the staffing-shortage case for AI non-emergency answering: a consolidated center for 44 police, fire and EMS agencies says AVA took more than 35,000 non-emergency calls in six months while a staff member still checks its work. The useful offer is helping centers measure what that review costs and finds, not promising answer-time gains the report does not measure.","engineering":"The design is a vendor voice agent ahead of human call takers, with concurrency as the main technical claim. Engineers should ask for transfer and misroute logs, how emergencies on the non-emergency line are detected, how corrections from human review feed back to the vendor, and what caller data the vendor retains. Treat the 300-call figure as a training claim until load is shown in production.","delivery":"Make the human check measurable: decide what share of AI-handled calls is reviewed, what counts as an error, and how fast errors are fixed. Report AI-handled volume, transfers, misroutes and complaints monthly. Lake County says it is exploring wider use of AVA, so any expansion should wait until those numbers exist. Share the same metrics with neighboring centers on the product so problems surface sooner."},"roleDetails":{"sales":{"customerProblem":"911 centers cannot hire enough call takers, and routine calls compete with emergencies.","stakeholders":["911 executive director","Member police, fire and EMS agencies","County council","Residents"],"discoveryQuestions":["What share of your calls are non-emergency?","Who reviews AI-handled calls and how often?","What misroute and transfer data do you keep?"],"valueHypothesis":"AI intake may absorb routine calls during staffing gaps if review shows low error rates.","potentialEngagement":"Performance and review-cost measurement for an AI non-emergency line.","unsupportedClaims":["Faster 911 answer times","Accuracy of AVA routing","Staff hours saved"]},"engineering":{"fit":"Vendor AI agent for non-emergency call intake at a consolidated PSAP.","architectureIntegration":"Non-emergency trunk to vendor agent; transfer to human call takers; human review of AI-handled calls.","prerequisites":["Call-type catalog","Transfer rules","Call logs with outcomes"],"constraints":["No published accuracy data","Vendor-claimed concurrency","Volume figures inconsistent in report"],"security":"Confirm vendor retention and access controls for recordings and caller details.","proofOfValue":["Misroute rate on a reviewed sample","Time to human after request","Emergency-on-wrong-line transfer tests"]},"delivery":{"work":"Define the review sample, track errors and transfers, report monthly before expanding scope.","dependencies":["Aurelian","Telephony","Member agencies"],"ownership":"Lake County 911 executive director.","skillsAdoption":"Reviewers learn to grade AI calls consistently and send corrections to the vendor.","governanceCheckpoints":["Monthly metrics review","Pre-expansion review"],"acceptanceCriteria":["Reviewed-sample error rate reported monthly","All emergency tests transferred"],"risks":["Unmeasured misroutes","Review work absorbs freed time","Caller frustration"]}},"retrievedAt":"2026-10-07T22:06:02-05:00","enrichedAt":"2026-10-07T22:06:02-05:00","enrichmentBasis":"retrieved source","accessibilityWorkforceImplications":"Framed as filling a hiring gap rather than replacing staff, but it creates a review task that someone must staff.","procurementImplications":"Same vendor across many neighboring centers allows peer benchmarking if agencies share comparable metrics.","operatingModelImplications":"AI handles routine non-emergency calls; humans take emergencies and check the AI's work.","sourceVerification":{"responseId":"curl-cbs-2026-10-07T22:06:02-05:00","openedUrl":"https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/lake-county-911-ava-ai-call-taker/","referenceExcerpt":"Swiderski says it is not taking dispatch jobs from his location, but pointed out that they still have a staff member checking AVA's work.","promptVersion":"sled-research-v4.0","model":null,"basis":"agent-reported inspection"}}}]}