Halton Police Adopt AI to Recruit and Train 911 Call-Takers, Citing a Canadian First

Halton Regional Police — the service that answers 911 and non-emergency calls for Milton — say they have begun using artificial intelligence to help recruit and train the people who staff the emergency phone lines. The force says it is the first police agency in Canada to adopt this particular type of technology.

What Happened

According to the Halton Regional Police Service, the force has introduced an AI platform from the U.S. company GovWorx that generates realistic emergency-call simulations. Applicants and trainees work through these scenarios to build skills in decision-making, communication and handling callers in crisis. Police say they use the same technology early in hiring to help identify suitable candidates, and plan to use it to assess communicators once they are on the job. The stated goal is to ease a long-standing staffing challenge in the 911 communications bureau.

Key Details

• The AI is supplied by GovWorx, an American public-safety technology firm, and creates emergency-call simulations for applicants and trainees.

• Halton’s 911 communications bureau manager, Brian Dodd, says the tool helps spot the right candidates early, and that full training for a communicator takes close to a year.

• The service says using AI in hiring has cut the time needed to evaluate candidates by roughly half.

• Halton currently has about 75 dispatchers and call-takers and is looking to add four to eight more this year.

• Police describe Halton as the first Canadian agency to use this type of technology, which they say is already in use at hundreds of U.S. communication centres.

• Separately, the service continues to run its SARA AI assistant on the non-emergency line, which it says has handled tens of thousands of non-emergency contacts this year while slightly trimming 911 wait times.

Community Impact

For Milton residents, every 911 call is answered by Halton’s regional communications centre, so staffing levels there directly affect how quickly an emergency gets a response. The service points to a North American benchmark of answering 90 per cent of 911 calls within 15 seconds, a standard it says it currently meets. Faster, better-targeted hiring and more prepared communicators could help the centre keep pace as Milton continues to grow.

Background

Emergency call centres across North America have faced staffing shortages and burnout, and training a new communicator is a lengthy process. Halton’s latest move builds on its earlier rollout of the SARA AI system, which fields certain non-emergency calls so human communicators can focus on urgent ones.

Source Credit

Source: Halton Regional Police Service, as reported by FM101 Milton Now — https://www.miltonnow.ca/local-news/

Disclaimer

This article is a rewritten summary based on publicly available information. Milton Baithak does not claim ownership of original source reporting. For corrections or removal requests, please contact Milton Baithak.