After a few hiccups, Ava settling in at sheriff’s office

Last week, callers to the Ozaukee  County Sheriff’s Office were introduced to the department’s newest employee, Ava. And like any new employee, Ava experienced a few growing pains.

Ava, who as the name implies, has a pleasant female voice, is an artificial intelligence phone system designed to take non-emergency calls to reduce the burden on human dispatchers.

“We went live 24/7 last week to take non-emergency calls — 911 calls go straight to a dispatcher — and we saw that we were having some issues and the system was having some trouble,” Sheriff Christy Knowles said Tuesday. “So I decided that until we get that figured out, we need to just back off.”

Early on interactions with Ava went  something like this:

Caller: “Can I speak to Sheriff Knowles?”

Ava: “Sheriff of what county?”

On another call, the caller asked to speak to an “officer.”

Ava: “Why do you want to speak to an officer?”

But later in the week, Ava seemed to be easing into her job.

Caller: “I would like to speak to the sheriff.”

Ava: (Pause) “Let me see what I can do.” (Pause) “I’ll forward you to a dispatcher who may be able to help you.”

On Tuesday morning during business hours, humans answered the phone and a request to speak with Sheriff Knowles was forwarded to another human.

That’s because Ava was turned off at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Knowles said.

Knowles said her department is working with Ava’s vendor, Aurelian, to work out the bugs with Ava, which Aurelian touts as the “No. 1 voice AI for public safety.”

“They (Aurelian) have been great to work with,” Knowles said. “They see how we do things and forward calls to the jail, dispatch center, administration. And when we see issues we make changes. They’ve been very receptive. “

After experiencing issues last week, the department only allowed Ava to answer the phones for two hours a day, after which human dispatchers addressed any problems that came up.

One of the major issues is helping Ava interpret terms like “sheriff” and “officer.”

“People aren’t specific enough for Ava,” Knowles said. “People often ask for a sheriff when they mean deputy. And sometimes they aren’t calling the right county.

“She is trying to figure it out. I’m getting all these messages but they aren’t even meant for me.”

While that’s a cause for frustration for civilian callers, it’s even more serious when the caller is someone from another law enforcement agency, Knowles said.

“They should be able to get through without having to go through Ava,” she said.

Another issue is that Ava can be confused by background noise — shouting, music and  other conversations.

Ava’s voice is conversational. It is touted as being able to understand full thoughts rather than just key words.

When a non-emergency call comes in, Ava can detect whether it is an emergency situation through voice analysis and the use of key words such as “fire” or “smoke” and  then automatically transfer the call to a human 911 dispatcher.

Knowles said complaints have been few.

“People can freak out and worry about stuff like this. But to be honest, people have been great,” Knowles said.

Knowles said representatives from her office saw Ava in action in La Crosse County. It’s also in use in Waukesha County. According to some news reports, she’s being tried out by restaurants to take food orders and reservations.

Once Ava has settled in, the hope is that the system will increase efficiency and help dispatchers focus on emergencies.

Ava was installed as part of a larger upgrade to the Sheriff’s Office dispatch center last year. Knowles estimated its cost at about $70,000, largely paid for with federal funds.