{"id":219729,"date":"2026-03-14T16:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T16:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/219729\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T16:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T16:49:11","slug":"chula-vista-turns-to-ai-for-911-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/219729\/","title":{"rendered":"Chula Vista turns to AI for 911 calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>A public safety dispatch center. (Photo courtesy of Harford County)<\/p>\n

This article<\/a>\u00a0first appeared in\u00a0inewsource.\u00a0Sign up for their\u00a0newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The city of Chula Vista will start using artificial intelligence for some of its work related to 911 calls and police dispatching.<\/p>\n

In a unanimous vote last week, the City Council agreed to expand its contract with AI software company Axon Enterprise Inc. to include using a product that in real time\u00a0 transcribes calls to text; drafts summaries of calls; translates for non-English speakers; and uses keyword alerts to help with dispatch and avoid missed transmissions.<\/p>\n

Human dispatchers will still be answering 911 calls.<\/p>\n

Using the additional Axon product known as \u201cPrepared<\/a>\u201d will help reduce the \u201ccognitive load\u201d for dispatchers, especially when receiving non-emergency calls, a police official told councilmembers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur communication center is operating in an increasingly demanding environment,\u201d said Kim Howard, the Police Department\u2019s communications systems manager. \u201cWe continue to face staffing shortages and attrition, while call volumes and community expectations continue to rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard said she wants to be very clear that the new product \u201cwill serve as an extension of our dispatch team, not a replacement, by supporting efficient call handling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chula Vista already uses Axon software known as \u201cDraft One\u201d that produces notes using audio files of police officers\u2019 body-worn camera footage. The product is optional for officers to use.<\/p>\n

The Prepared software is already included in the city\u2019s four-year, nearly $1 million contract with Axon and will not cost any additional money. Howard said the city will maintain all ownership of the data that the software collects, and that Axon has not reported any known data breaches.<\/p>\n

Neither councilmembers nor members of the public commented on the new product at the meeting.<\/p>\n

Police spokesperson Caitlin Clark told\u00a0inewsource\u00a0in an email that the department does not yet have specific details on how AI will be used to reroute non-emergency calls.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the program has not yet been implemented, we\u2019ll have the opportunity during rollout to evaluate how the platform functions in our center and determine how features like call rerouting will be used,\u201d Clark said. \u201cWe should have more information to provide as we move forward with the implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civil rights and privacy groups have historically criticized the use of AI in police departments. More than a\u00a0 year ago, the American Civil Liberties Union released\u00a0a report<\/a>raising concerns over \u201cunreliability and biased nature of AI, evidentiary and memory issues when officers resort to this technology, and issues around transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seth Hall, a representative for the local advocacy organization\u00a0Trust SD<\/a>, told\u00a0inewsource\u00a0in an email that his group is \u201chighly concerned about the increased use of mass surveillance, which is largely being sold under the trendy label of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said these softwares are instead part of a \u201ctightly interconnected network of unaccountable, expensive and problematic police mass surveillance systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Axon told\u00a0inewsource\u00a0in an email that more than 1,000 agencies across 49 states use Prepared.<\/p>\n

Chula Vista police plan to release a progress report in the coming months on its use of the Draft One product.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A public safety dispatch center. (Photo courtesy of Harford County) This article\u00a0first appeared in\u00a0inewsource.\u00a0Sign up for their\u00a0newsletters here.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[35942,2007,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-219729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-911-calls","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}