The Toronto Police Service says it will soon use artificial intelligence (AI) to answer many non‑emergency phone calls. This plan is meant to help faster and make it easier for people to get answers when they do not need urgent police help.
Police leaders said the new AI system will start handling calls that are not emergencies, like reports about illegal parking, street art, or minor problems such as a small crimes that has already happened. These calls do not involve someone being in danger right now.
In recent years, Toronto police have received a lot of calls which are difficult to answer. They say, on average, about 1.9 million calls are made each year for help. About one‑third of those calls are for non‑emergency problems. Last year, people waiting for a non‑emergency line had to wait more than six minutes on average.
To deal with this, the police plan to use a new AI tool from a company called Hyper, which was started by Canadian technology founders. The AI will answer phone calls and ask questions, much like virtual systems such as Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri talk to users. This new system is expected to cut down wait times and reduce the number of calls that human staff must handle.
When someone calls about a non‑emergency issue, the AI system first checks basic details. For example, it may ask where the incident happened and any damage. If the call involves something that needs immediate help, the system will transfer it to a real person right away.
In a media presentation last year, a co‑founder of the AI company made a test call to another police service to show how the system works. The AI asked questions about a minor car accident and then directed the caller to the right place to file an online report. The trial worked smoothly, with only a small pause in answering.
Officials say that using AI for these calls will let human phone workers spend more time on serious cases and reduce the backlog of non‑emergency calls. They also said that police will still have systems in place to make sure that real emergencies are sent to human operators quickly.
This plan follows similar steps in other parts of Ontario. For instance, the Halton Regional Police Service has already begun using an AI call system called SARA to help to deal with non‑emergency calls. That system asks simple questions and decides whether a live communicator needs to take over. Some experts say this type of system may help speed up services, but they also warn it could cause frustration if the AI misunderstands people’s questions.
Toronto police have been working for some time to improve phone services. They have also introduced options like online reporting for issues such as theft or property damage so people can send reports without needing to wait on the phone.
Officials say the goal of these changes is to reduce long phone wait times and make sure that real emergencies get priority. By using new technology and better systems, they hope the public will have a quicker and clearer way to get police help when needed.
As the technology is put into place, Toronto Police say they will continue to listen to community feedback to make sure the system works fine for everyone.