ELLIS COUNTY – Beginning Friday, July 24, the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office will launch an artificial intelligence-assisted voice system on its non-emergency phone line to help callers obtain information and be directed to the appropriate resources more efficiently.
The new system, developed by Hyper, will answer calls made to the sheriff’s office non-emergency number at (972) 937-6060.
Sheriff Brad Norman emphasized that 9-1-1 calls will continue to be answered by human telecommunicators and are not affected by the change.
Callers using the non-emergency line may be asked a series of questions so the system can determine the nature of the call. It may provide answers to routine questions, direct callers to online resources or county services, or transfer calls to a sheriff’s office telecommunicator when needed.
According to the sheriff’s office, calls will automatically be transferred to a human operator if the system detects a possible emergency, cannot understand the caller, or encounters a situation outside its programmed capabilities.
The AI-assisted service will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, supports multiple languages, and records and transcribes all interactions.
Norman said the technology is intended to assist – not replace – telecommunicators by helping manage routine, non-emergency calls while allowing staff to focus on higher-priority requests.
He added the sheriff’s office will continue to use the technology responsibly while keeping the needs of Ellis County residents as its top priority.