SARA AI Police Calls Ontario: Canadian Police Start Using AI to Answer Non-Emergency Calls

Are you speaking to a person or an AI bot? SARA AI handles non-emergency police calls in Ontario, freeing time for police to do their jobs.

Halton Regional Police in Ontario just launched an artificial intelligence system named SARA that answers non-emergency calls 24/7. The voice agent was built by Toronto startup Hyper and handles about 60% of calls that come into police departments, which aren’t actual emergencies. When you call the non-emergency police call system, SARA asks you questions to figure out if she can help or if you need a real person. The system can speak over 30 languages and takes care of stuff like minor car accidents, noise complaints, lost property reports, and suspicious activity calls.

Emergency calls are still handled by humans

All 911 emergency calls still go straight to human operators. Police say they’re dealing with around 160,000 non-emergency calls a year that tie up operators who should be handling life-or-death situations. The AI can fill out forms, give people next steps, and pass urgent calls to live dispatchers right away. Hyper’s already working with police departments across Ontario, Manitoba, and some US cities. They claim the system resolves 75% of non-emergency calls without human help, which frees up understaffed call centers, where it can take over a year just to train one dispatcher.

SARA AI handles the right police calls in Ontario

With so many calls that aren’t emergencies, it’s important for the Hyper AI emergency response system to understand the difference. Thankfully, the AI voice agent can pass a call to an actual 911 dispatch unit when calls are actual emergencies. This Canadian police technology startup is helping with automated police call handling, making it much easier for understaffed dispatch centers to answer life-and-death calls that must be given priority. Imagine how frustrating it would be to call 911 and be put on hold because the dispatcher is handling a call that isn’t an emergency. Thankfully, this new Smart Answering Routing Assistant (SARA) can do much of the work that dispatchers were required to do in the past. This takes some of the stress off officers and allows them to focus on the most important calls.

Current staff can handle the job with the SARA AI on the job

Allowing SARA AI to field non-emergency police calls makes it possible for Ontario police departments to continue to function at their current staffing levels. The incredibly high number of non-emergency calls is now off the plates of the officers behind the phones, giving them the ability to truly focus on dispatching emergency response teams to the appropriate locations in a timely manner. This means the new AI system could be a lifesaver, despite not fielding any calls that should require lifesaving systems or practices.

“It’s all about saving their valuable time and not having to hire 100 more every year because of all the calls that really don’t require an emergency response.”

– Chief Lewis, former Ontario Provincial Police commissioner

How does SARA work?

The SARA AI system asks callers a series of short questions to categorize their requirements. This allows the system to know what the caller needs. Regular complaints and simple matters can be hanlded by the AI system, which has been programmed to fill out paperwork and file reports that might be needed in the future. If a caller is truly in an emergency, SARA transfers the call to a live dispatcher, ensuring the caller is able to get the help they need from the right department.

Are callers going to get frustrated?

More chatbots aren’t what many people expect from their police department. Adding SARA AI to field police calls in Ontario is a great idea, except for the frustration that many people feel when talking to chatbots. That said, there’s certainly a practical answer to this:

“The frustration for some people is going to be, I want to talk to a live body, but unfortunately, there’s a huge tax cost to having those live bodies sitting there waiting for you to answer every little question you might have that may not be emergent. People have to understand this is a good way to do business. It’s going to meet their needs and still be cost-effective.”

– Chief Lewis

Halton Regional Police began using SARA AI to field police calls in October and instituted it for 24/7 service. The Winnipeg Police Service began with a pilot project in the summer, using the system several hours each day, but now uses it 24/7 as well.

How would you feel if you called the police and got an AI chatbot?