Police trial Al in bid to slash waiting times

County force is third to take part in pilot

- Phil Corrigan Local Democracy Reporter

STAFFORDSHIRE Police will soon deploy an AI system in its contact centre in a bid to cut call waiting times.

The force is set to become the third in the country to take part in a pilot scheme trialling the use of artificial intelligence ‘agents’ for non-emergency contacts.

Under this system, the AI agent would deal with simple queries such as requests for information without the need for human involvement, freeing up call handlers and reducing answering times. Staffordshire Police has previously been plagued with lengthy waits on its non-emergency 101 service, although answering times and abandonment rates have both improved over the last 12 months.