Winnipeg police expand AI agent pilot program for non-emergency line

More Winnipeg residents will have their non-emergency calls answered by artificial intelligence as the police service expands its AI-powered voice agent pilot program next week.

Winnipeg Police Service said in a Friday news release that it has been testing the system for nearly a year, with the hopes that the AI agent will replace the existing automated voice system that guides callers through a pre-recorded list of options. 

Police said the non-emergency line has received about 900 calls per day, with about 172,000 calls logged so far this year. 

Insp. Gord Spado says the new AI system is intended to be more conversational and user-friendly compared to the "cumbersome" voice system Winnipeg police currently use. 

"Our goal of this project is really about improving customer service and giving a modern flair to the call-taking process with our organization," Spado said at a news conference on Friday. 

He said the police will begin ramping up daily testing next week, starting with two hours per day. If all goes well, the AI agent will soon be triaging calls for six to seven hours per day. 

Eventually, the service will operate 24 hours a day, Spado said. 

"We really want to get it to the point where a person can call, say what they need and not worry about where they are in that list of options, and the AI agent can forward them to the most appropriate resource," he said. 

The non-emergency line agent is one of six AI-centred pilot projects the city announced last June. Other pilots include an automated chat agent for 311 inquiries and automated invoice processing. 

Mayor Scott Gillingham said the police service's AI agent is "exactly the kind of innovation that [he] hoped for" when he pushed city staff to consider how AI could be used across municipal services. 

"This is about delivering good customer service to the people of Winnipeg and making a heavy workload a little more manageable for our frontline staff," Gillingham said during the press conference announcing the pilot's expanded scope. 

He said the city is taking a "careful" and "measured" approach to AI integration by slowly expanding the pilot. 

Brandon University sociology professor Chris Schneider, who specializes in the social impact of new media, said he's "cautiously optimistic" about Winnipeg police using AI, emphasizing the caution.

Vancouver police use a similar AI-powered tool for calls, which was developed by an American company called Genesys. Schneider said relying on large international companies raises concerns around data privacy and public safety. 

"Can they assure the public that there will be no manipulation, or that it's perfectly safe and cannot be manipulated by outside actors?" he said in an interview with Up to Speed's Chloe Friesen on Friday afternoon. 

 "There's a lot of questions here and very few answers, unfortunately." 

He said the AI agent will likely help callers get service faster, making them less likely to hang up before they get the help they need. 

However, the automated experience could become frustrating without a human on the other end of the line, Schneider said. 

According to Winnipeg police's website, residents should use the non-emergency line to report crimes where the suspect has left the scene, property crimes that are no longer in progress, and suspicious circumstances. 

In Friday's news release, police encouraged callers to speak in clear, full, sentences, while limiting background noise and being patient while the AI agent finishes its prompts. 

Schneider said calm, clear communication may be difficult if a caller has recently witnessed or been the victim of a crime, even if it's not an emergency. 

"This is one of the basic problems with the incorporation of AI, is AI does not have any kind of empathy. I think empathy goes a long way in talking people through situations where they might be upset because something terrible has happened to them, their family or their property," he said. 

Spado said the police service hopes to decide whether the AI agent will become permanent by the end of the year.

He said it is only available in English, but they are working to expand the tool to French-speaking residents soon.  

"We need to be cautiously optimistic here that we're not seduced by the idea that AI is going to correct and fix everything. It will not," Schneider said.