Fairfax County is among several localities across the country leaning on a new partner for 911 calls: artificial intelligence.
An AI-powered system will provide the Fairfax County Department of Public Safety Communications (DPSC) with support for handling non-emergency calls, Scott Brillman, the agency’s director, told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday (Oct. 1).
At the safety and security committee meeting, Brillman indicated that the county has been receiving a growing number of non-emergency calls since at least 2022. This year so far, the 911 call center has received 506,940 non-emergency calls compared to 420,824 emergency calls.
While workers give priority to emergency calls, long wait times and the sheer number of calls can make the process frustrating for both residents and call takers, Brillman said.
“We don’t let that resident down,” he said of non-emergency calls. “We look and we research that type of information for that resident. And those type of calls take a lot more time than a 911 call.”
Handling all of those calls by phone is no longer sustainable, an issue that has emerged around the country, according to Brillman.
Joining jurisdictions like Arlington, which began piloting an Amazon system for emergency services last year, Fairfax County’s DPSC is starting to utilize AI-supported automation to process non-emergency calls, which can range from civil disputes, check fraud and identity theft to noise complaints and trespassing.
The department also hopes to process alarm calls, provide language translation services, and organize data during incidents. For example, the system would be able to take in data from a car crash, such as how many people were in the car, if they had a seatbelt on, and how fast the car was going.
Brillman said the technology will also be used to process towing requests — a process that currently relies on a fax machine.
In response to a question from Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, Brillman said the system will be closed, meaning the county will craft responses to specific questions as opposed to an open AI system. The technology will give callers the option to connect to an official, human 911 call taker at any point.
In the next year or so, the system will also be able to pool video, pictures and texts and allow for the option of taking phone calls remotely.
Regardless of the technology, Brillman said the county always has a “fail-safe.”
“Anytime we implement a new system, we work with [the Department of Information Technology] and we work with our vendors,” he said.
This story was updated to correct the spelling of Scott Brillman’s name.
