Starting next week, Lyon County residents with non-emergency calls will get help from artificial intelligence.
Lyon County Emergency Communications officially begins utilizing “Betty,” a custom-designed AI tool to answer certain non-emergency calls for the city of Emporia, Lyon County and Emporia State University. Emergency Communications Director Roxanne Van Gundy says this will have no bearing on emergency calls.
Betty will handle almost 10 different categories of basic calls, ranging from simple information calls to reports that need help but not of the emergency nature. Information then goes to dispatchers, who will continue processing information, assigning responses and monitoring in case of escalation or possible emergency. If there are any signs of emergency, Betty is designed to immediately transfer the call to a trained dispatcher.
Van Gundy says Betty is an important tool at an important time because dispatchers are short on supply and long on workload.
Betty officially makes her debut Monday. Betty will operate for four months, meaning she will assist during Emergency Communications’ busiest time of the year — in no small part because of grass fire season that can start as early as January. The trial period gives Emergency Communications time to gauge impact on overall service, dispatch workload and call volume. Van Gundy says the goal is to reduce the strain on dispatchers while giving staff “more capacity for emergency response” and improved work balance.
Betty’s assistance is part of a pilot program developed by the county and Hyper as finalized this past summer.
