Skagit 911, the emergency dispatch center in Skagit County, is in the process of implementing artificial intelligence services to aid dispatchers in processing calls, and to improve their performance and the training process.
Three AI services are being built and tested before they are implemented, said Alysn Everbeck, Skagit 911’s executive director.
One AI service, Automated Non-Emergency Triage, or ANET, will “help reduce the influx of non-emergency calls our (dispatchers) need to process,” Everbeck wrote in an email.
She said about 40% of the calls Skagit 911 received in 2024 were nonemergency calls.
“Implementing ANET will allow our very busy (dispatchers) to focus primarily on the critical tasks of processing 911 calls and providing dispatch services to field first responders,” Everbeck wrote.
Skagit 911 also plans to implement Assistive Call-Taking, which will transcribe calls in real time and provide dispatchers with prompts based on Skagit 911’s operating guidelines. It can also translate about 20 languages, Everbeck said.
The third AI service Skagit 911 plans to implement is Automated Quality Assurance. This service will provide feedback on most service calls, allowing supervisors to address gaps when training employees.
These services will cost $275,000 to implement over a three-year period — $75,000 the first year and $100,000 each of the next two.
The new AI services will allow Skagit 911 to eliminate a $50,000 contract with a third party that provides quality assurance for a small number of nonmedical calls, bringing the budget increase of implementing AI services in 2026 to $25,000.
Everbeck said implementing AI services is not intended to reduce costs.
“The goal of implementing AI services is not to save money, though that may be a happy unintended consequence in time,” she wrote. “We are much more focused on the benefits these systems will bring to our staff, our field first responders, and the community we serve.”
Everbeck said these AI services will not replace humans, but rather are intended to increase employment and retention of dispatchers.
“These systems will support our current staff and trainees by reducing unnecessary tasks and providing near real-time performance feedback,” Everbeck said.
In her email, Everbeck addressed common concerns people have when it comes to the use of AI.
“Everyone’s first concern is that AI could be processing 911 calls without any human oversight or intervention. We are not doing this now and have no plans for it in the future. Another concern we have heard is that AI systems open to the internet have been known to ‘hallucinate’ or display bias based on the information available to them. Because our system will be closed and will only use the protocols and information we provide to it, we are not concerned about this either.”
Everbeck noted that several counties in the state have been successful in implementing AI-based platforms for nonemergency call processing and quality assurance.
“At Skagit 911 we are excited to carefully deploy emerging technology to better meet the needs of our team and our community,” Everbeck wrote.
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