Boulder police will put AI on the non-emergency line, with human backup

Boulder police want AI to free dispatchers for emergencies, but the system is still heading toward deployment. The department plans a soft launch of Axon’s non-emergency call assistant by the end of October 2026, CBS Colorado reported October 12. A staged demonstration showed a human handoff when a routine complaint became potentially dangerous.

Routine calls dominate the workload

About 70% of the department’s calls are non-emergencies, according to Brad Riggin, Boulder’s safety communications manager. Police hope automating those conversations will ease staffing shortages and reduce the routine work competing for dispatchers’ attention.

The rollout has two milestones. CBS Colorado’s October 12 account puts the soft launch at month’s end and the expected full rollout at the end of 2026. An October 7 Daily Camera story, republished by Government Technology, described all non-emergency calls moving to AI at the end of October after weeks of phased testing.

What it's really going to do for us is let the dispatchers prioritize those calls where seconds matter, instead of being taken away from those calls by lesser priority calls.

Brad Riggin, Boulder safety communications manager, speaking to CBS Colorado

A conversation replaces the phone menu

The system is called Automated Non-Emergency Triage, or ANET. Government Technology’s account describes an assistant that speaks English and Spanish and collects information through conversation. It is intended to replace a menu that asks callers to listen to options and press a number to reach the right destination.

In demonstrations, the voice identifies itself as Ashley and tells callers it is an automated assistant. Its planned remit includes abandoned vehicles, noise and parking complaints, lost or found property, and requests for extra patrols. Some categories have explicit limits: traffic crashes without injuries and animal complaints without a threat to public safety.

Where people remain in the process

• 911 calls will not be answered by the assistant.
• Callers who do not want to speak to AI can ask for a human dispatcher.
• Dispatchers can review information the assistant has already collected, and human staff will review every generated report.

CBS Colorado tested a hypothetical wildlife concern. The assistant asked what the animal was doing, then transferred the call to a human on the emergency line as the scenario escalated to possible danger. That demonstrated the handoff in a staged exchange; it was not a result from the planned public rollout.

Recorded calls, without training use

Police spokesperson Dionne Waugh said non-emergency calls will remain recorded and publicly accessible as they were under the existing system. She also said Axon will not use data from those calls to train the assistant. The no-training commitment does not change the department’s stated recording and public-access arrangements.

There is also a human route for complaints about the system itself. Callers can contact the non-emergency line and tell the assistant they want to lodge a complaint; it will transfer them to a dispatcher. Riggin described staff reactions as mixed, while saying some were excited about a tool that could reduce their workload.