{"id":207043,"date":"2026-04-29T09:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T13:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/29\/have-a-non-emergency-maybe-ava-can-help\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T09:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T13:25:14","slug":"have-a-non-emergency-maybe-ava-can-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/29\/have-a-non-emergency-maybe-ava-can-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Have a non-emergency? Maybe Ava can help"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opb.org\/article\/2026\/04\/29\/have-a-non-emergency-maybe-ava-can-help\/\">Have a non-emergency? Maybe Ava can help<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opb.org\/article\/2026\/04\/29\/have-a-non-emergency-maybe-ava-can-help\/\">https:\/\/www.opb.org\/article\/2026\/04\/29\/have-a-non-emergency-maybe-ava-can-help\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-04-29 09:06:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.opb.org\">www.opb.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here is a summary of the article on AI-powered automated call assistant testing by the Willamette Valley Communications Center:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><strong>High Call Volume Issues<\/strong>: The Willamette Valley Communications Center handles around 500,000 emergency and non-emergency calls annually for 32 public safety agencies. Non-emergency calls often face long wait times due to the priority given to emergency calls.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>AI Solution Implementation<\/strong>: To address the problem of long wait times for non-emergency calls, an AI-powered automated call assistant named Ava is being tested. Its goal is to improve service quality and reduce wait times.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Current Test Results<\/strong>: The AI program Ava has been live for about a month and is currently handling over 60% of the non-emergency calls, surpassing the target of 40%.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Call Handling Mechanism<\/strong>: Ava assists with routine issues like noise complaints or parking issues. If the AI recognizes that a call needs human intervention\u2014like detecting anxiety in the caller\u2019s voice or hearing a gunshot in the background\u2014it can transfer the call to a live dispatcher.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Language Support<\/strong>: Ava speaks 45 languages, which helps in assisting callers who may otherwise require an interpreter.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>End of Test Evaluation<\/strong>: The test of Ava will continue until the end of June, after which its effectiveness will be assessed to potentially expand its usage across all non-emergency lines at the center.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Future Implications<\/strong>: If successful, this tool could be adopted by other dispatch agencies as call volumes continue to rise with population growth.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have a non-emergency? Maybe Ava can help https:\/\/www.opb.org\/article\/2026\/04\/29\/have-a-non-emergency-maybe-ava-can-help\/ Publish Date: 2026-04-29 09:06:00 Source Domain: www.opb.org&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/opb-opb-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/KKWGXEEJAZGG5OWL3C4NGI72LE.jpg?auth=b04b2023a8fe9307b31554a7d24240fb2bce3fbed7a930ff0361b74a12df0b7d&width=1200&height=675&smart=true","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207045,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207043\/revisions\/207045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}