The Volusia Sheriff’s Office is deploying an AI assistant for non-emergency calls.
If you call the non-emergency line in Volusia County, you might notice a new voice answering your call – Ava, the new AI-powered assistant helping the Volusia Sheriff’s Office route non-emergency calls, freeing up dispatchers to answer 911 calls faster.
Ava, a product of the Seattle software company Aurelian AI, is operating 24/7, designed to reduce the non-emergency workload on dispatchers so they can focus on the most urgent calls.
“This is just one more way we can use technology to take our performance to the next level,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said of the system, which has been partially deployed in the VSO Communications Center for testing and evaluation since June. “This system puts more of our dispatchers back where we need them the most: Answering your 911 calls.”
With Aurelian, non-emergency callers speak to an AI call taker that can gather basic details and then, route it to a dispatcher for review and processing. A live dashboard displays a transcript of AI-answered calls in progress and is monitored by a supervisor to ensure each call is handled appropriately.
Stats and user feedback during the testing phase of the rollout have been overwhelmingly positive, indicating the system is achieving its goal of reducing 911 wait times. During the testing phase, an average of 93% of 911 calls were answered within 10 seconds or less, significantly better than the national standard.
Non-emergency calls represent the largest share of call volume at the VSO Communications Center. In 2024, VSO received 358,723 non-emergency calls, or an average of 983 per day. By comparison, there were 328,606 emergency calls to 911, plus 1,140 text messages.
The Volusia Sheriff’s Office said it will continue to monitor the progress of this new AI tool and track its success in streamlining operations.
