Supt Fairhurst explained that AI Bobbi is not a replacement for genuine emergency 999 calls – but an alternative for non-emergency scenarios.
“It doesn’t replace anything,” Fairhurst said of the new tool.
“When anyone rings 999, it doesn’t interfere with the emergency process.
“But we get around 2,000 calls a day to Merseyside Police and we know that 20% of these calls don’t need a policing operator to deal with them.
“But now someone can go on the website, interact with the chatbot and it will deal with non-urgent matters.”
Fairhurst said the process asks the user if their scenario is an emergency – if so, the user is told to call 999.
If not, the user is directed to inputting their name, email address and phone number before describing the problem to the chatbot.
“Then we can deal with it automatically through the chatbot in order to get the right information and the right response to that member of the public,” Fairhurst explained.
He maintained the system would not replace existing services like 101 – but would be an additional feature for those comfortable using it.
“101 is not going away,” he said. “We’re still here and we still have contact resolution officers dealing with those calls every single day.
“This provides an additional service to the public where those that are comfortable using that digital service can get information quicker, faster and also makes sure our contact resolution officers are available for when someone needs to ring 999 that they can be answered immediately.”