A noise complaint, a lost dog, a permit question—none of them need lights and sirens, but each one still ties up a Dane County dispatcher who also answers 911. Last year the Public Safety Communications Department took about 375,000 calls; more than 200,000 were non-emergency.
On August 18, 2026 the county put AVA—the Aurelian Virtual Assistant—on the non-emergency line at 608-255-2345. Callers talk to an AI voice that asks what is going on, gathers details for a service request, and works in more than 45 languages. A communicator still reviews the transcript afterward. If AVA hears an emergency, or the caller asks for a person, the call moves to a human.
The clever bit
The clever bit is the split: AVA takes the routine non-emergency queue first, while trained communicators stay ready for 911. It listens for emergency keywords and can hand off mid-call. The answers are saved for a trained call-taker to review, and they can follow up by phone or text if they need more.
About a month in, Spectrum News reported that AVA had handled more than 24,000 non-emergency calls. Deputy Director Johnny Leonard said there had been no major mistakes, and that one strength was how quickly AVA spots emergencies arriving on the non-emergency line and passes them to a person. Staff take turns monitoring AVA so a human can call back if something looks off.
Hooray
Hooray: more than 24,000 non-emergency calls handled in roughly the first month—so 911 communicators can stay on the line that needs them most.
What comes next
Eleven months of the trial remained when Spectrum News checked in. Callers who dislike the AI can ask for a communicator. Residents should still dial 911 for police, fire, or ambulance. The ~60 percent non-emergency relief figure quoted at launch was a goal from Director Luis Bixler, not a measured month-one result—so the honest scorecard so far is call volume handled and “no major mistakes,” not a finished outcome study.