Dane County Routes Non-Emergency Calls Through AVA to Protect 911 Capacity

Dane County residents calling the non-emergency line may now speak first with AVA, an AI assistant developed by Aurelian. The county is using the system to move routine intake away from the communicators who also answer 911 calls, particularly when demand surges.

AVA launched Aug. 18 for issues including noise complaints, animal-control requests and general-information questions. Non-emergency calls made up about 53% of Dane County’s call volume in the prior year, according to deputy director Johnny Leonard. Leonard said the same people answer both those calls and incoming 911 calls.

A front end for routine calls, not a separate dispatch system

The system asks callers questions and sends needed information to dispatchers for follow-up. Its emergency safeguard is concise: AVA is designed to identify signs or keywords that suggest an emergency and route the caller directly to 911. A caller can bypass the AI by saying, “I want to speak to a person,” which triggers a transfer to a human operator.

That design targets the uneven load facing a dispatch center. Leonard said one event can create a call spike with cascading delays for other 911 and non-emergency calls. Public Safety Communications Director Luis Bixler pointed to crashes and weather events as examples that can overwhelm the center. County officials expect AVA to keep dispatchers more available for emergencies during those periods, rather than replace their role in dispatch.

The $180,000 annual price is therefore not the county’s full first-year burden: the state grant covered 90% of that year’s expenses. The 30-day termination provision gives the county an early way out if the service does not meet its needs. It does not alter the stated annual subscription price.

The efficiency claim still includes human review

Bixler estimates that sending calls to AVA can free up about 60% of non-emergency call volume for emergency operators. But every call that comes through AVA is reviewed by a county communicator to ensure dispatch-relevant information was captured. Starting with AVA also does not mean the AI resolves the entire matter; a human dispatcher can remain involved.

That review is central to the county’s operating model. Devansh Saxena, a University of Wisconsin–Madison professor who studies AI in high-stakes settings, cautioned that AI mistakes can shift verification and correction work back to employees. AVA’s value will depend on whether its initial intake reduces routine work enough to justify the review that follows.

Transcript evaluation creates a practical privacy question

The county says AVA is a closed, on-premises system, with information secured by Dane County and not shared with outside entities. It also says Aurelian evaluates every call transcript to improve service delivery. Together, those disclosures raise a practical question: how does Aurelian evaluate transcripts within the county’s stated on-premises arrangement?