New AI-powered system enhances emergency response in Hillsborough County
If someone needs to dial 911 but can’t speak, they can now text or use video services, both of which are available locally.
In 2019, three students at Yale University developed a company called Prepared with the goal of creating faster and more effective communication with calls.
Over 10 million processed calls later, Prepared is now a company implementing assistive AI to translate 911 calls into over 200 languages, including Spanish, Persian and French Creole.
Josh Keeler, Prepared marketing lead, said this feature is important in cities with large Spanish-speaking populations, such as Tampa.
“There’s a heavy percentage of Spanish-speaking calls, so translation is going to be a crucial functionality for them,” Keeler said.
With Prepared now funded by Hillsborough County, every agency in the county is equipped with the technology.
Amy Huchla, the supervisor of telecommunications at the Temple Terrace Police Department, said this technology is a critical addition to her dispatch unit.
“It really is helping us get more detail out to the officers or to the responders as quickly as possible,” Huchla said. “It’s really changing the efficiency, and then it’s also helping us know exactly what our people are responding to.”
The AI program can ask to access your camera so the operator can see the situation firsthand — whether it’s a certain color of smoke coming from a fire or a simple hand placement while performing CPR.
Huchla said the 911 dispatcher will send callers a link requesting video access.
“You hit yes, I accept, and it will open up your camera, and you just point it towards whatever it is you’re trying to show us,” she said. “We have the ability to do snapshots of that, and it saves the footage, so then we’ll have that for investigation purposes later on down the road.”
This feature will be helpful because dispatchers often talk to callers who are going through “hard times,” Huchla said.
“Some of us get to hear the last breaths of people as we’re trying to help them, and I think having the ability to maybe see somebody or see what’s going on is going to be beneficial,” she said.
Huchla said if she has to redirect a caller to a different department, such as Animal Control or the Sheriff’s Office, she can now click on a messaging service and send their website and telephone number.
“Sometimes we have to provide those other numbers, and it’s always hard when you’re driving or if you’re doing something else and don’t have necessarily a pen to write that down,” she said.
Prepared arrived at dispatch units for training around six months ago and officially went live in March, Huchla said.
Keeler said the AI program focuses on the efficiency and timeliness of phone calls.
“Assistive AI can enhance every single part of the emergency response process, hopefully resulting in faster call processing, faster dispatching and ultimately, more lives saved in the community,” Keeler said.
Keeler said he has been “fortunate enough” to visit around five different agencies and sit alongside them to watch how the platform is used.
It was “cool” to see and hear about the differences the platform makes for both dispatchers and callers.
Keeler said Prepared’s mission is to help ensure every 911 call gets a “perfect” response.
“From the caller’s perspective, our goal is to give you the tools to more easily communicate your emergency and give the call taker the tools to more easily understand what you are trying to communicate,” he said.
For those interested in a dispatch career, the Temple Terrace police department is hiring.
Huchla said that although it is a high-stress job, the department tries to accommodate the employee’s schedule so they have time to decompress, explore and live life outside of work.
“We get our schedule for a year in advance, but we work typically an average of 15 days a month,” Huchla said. “You get to plan every other weekend off, so if you have family, you have friends or you like to travel, you have that ability.”
Employees can also get salary raises when they complete certain trainings, which Huchla said the department assists with.
“There’s a lot that happens in the 12-hour shifts that we work, but then you also get that time off to be able to recharge your soul and keep moving, which is definitely beneficial,” she said.
There are also health benefits, such as medical, vision, dental, life insurance, short-term and long-term disability from day one.
Huchla said that although dispatchers are classified as administrative assistants, there is an ongoing “joke” that they are the “first” first responders.
“We work the same hours, we hear all the same trauma, we go through all of this, but we don’t respond,” Huchla said.
Credits:
Anchor: Tatyana Purifoy
Reporter: Gracie Campbell
Producer: Ricardo Cuomo
Assistant Producer: Debora Gruenberg
Camera: Carter Timmons
Audio: Clara Rokita Garcia
Teleprompter: Sam Poulin
Web Editor: Clara Rokita Garcia
Editor: Paula Sanchez Ruiz and Luana Martins
Graduate Assistant: Grace Ficara
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Stephanie Anderson