The Willamette Valley Communications Center is slammed with calls.

It takes around 500,000 9-1-1 and non-emergency calls every year for 32 public safety agencies across Marion, Polk and Lincoln Counties.

Since emergency calls get priority, non-emergency calls often get stuck on hold for a long time.

“We found out that we were leaving people on hold on the non-emergency side up to 25 minutes,” says Brian Carrara, assistant chief with Salem Fire, which runs the center. “We’re trying to solve a problem to give people better service.”

The solution now being tested is an artificial intelligence program called Ava.

It’s an AI-powered automated call assistant that can help callers with routine issues like noise complaints or parking issues.

The WVCC is testing Ava on six non-emergency lines until the end of June. If successful, the program could be expanded.

Carrara spoke with “All Things Considered” host Geoff Norcross about how the test is going.

Geoff Norcross: What problem is Ava designed to solve?

Brian Carrara: Ava is designed to solve the continuous wait times on our non-emergency calls that we get at WVCC. In a given year, we received 500,000 9-1-1 and non-emergency calls, and we found out that we were leaving people on hold on the non-emergency side up to 25 minutes. We’re trying to solve a problem to give people better service.

Norcross: This test has been live for about a month now. What are your early impressions?

Carrara: We wanted it to handle a minimum of 40% of the calls that would come into the center. Right now, it’s handling 60.7%. So it’s above our target, which is great.

Norcross: I did a test run of the Salem police line, and I want to play that for you.

Listen to Ava help Geoff with a stray dog problem:

Norcross: That was super straightforward, and I did get that text. What might have happened in that call to elevate it to something that a human might need to handle?

Carrara: Well, let’s say you were talking on the phone and said “dispatcher” three times. At that point, it would transfer you to a live person. Or if the system heard a gunshot in the background, it would immediately transfer to a live person.

Let’s say that you spoke in a different language. Ava speaks 45 languages. That alone in itself is an amazing accomplishment to be able to help with those individuals who otherwise, we’d have to call an interpreter.

Norcross: Dispatchers are trained to pick up on other cues. Can Ava hear something in my voice maybe would make her think maybe a human should take this call?

Carrara: She could. She can hear the anxiety. She can hear those things, and she will ask those questions. And again, if the system doesn’t feel like it can handle it, it will transfer to a live person.

Norcross: You call her “her” and “she.” Do you think of her kind of as a real person?

Carrara: Not me, no. But I’ve been working in AI for over 18 months now, and I look at this as a tool to make our jobs and our life a little easier. It’s a faster tool to be able to apply to the system.

Norcross: You’re running this test until the end of June. What happens then?

Carrara: If we feel that it is beneficial to the center and to the 32 agencies that we support, then we will bring it on fulltime, and it’ll affect all non-emergency numbers that we currently operate under.

I do think throughout the state, you’re going to find that more and more dispatch agencies are going to start using this because we are only getting busier.

Our call volume has not ever gone down. It’s always going up. And as that call volume goes up—as more and more help is needed as populations grow—you’re going to have to find those tools available to help with that customer service aspect, and this is a tool that will do that.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/04/29/have-a-non-emergency-maybe-ava-can-help/