Halton police turn to AI to recruit and train 911 communicators
· Toronto Sun
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Given the high-stress nature and importance of the job, it makes sense for police to have the most qualified 911 communicators.
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“It is a very unique and difficult job,” Halton Regional Police Services Communications Manager Brian Dodd told the Toronto Sun on Friday. “The decisions that 911 communicators are making are life and death decisions. So, we need to make sure we have the right people to do those jobs.”
Halton police are the first law enforcement agency in Canada to use an artificial intelligence system called GovWorx to identify and train potential 911 communicators more quickly.
Some of the qualities police forces across the country look for in 911 personnel include staying calm and showing empathy in stressful situations, critical thinking skills and accurate data entry.
“It’s hard to find a person that can meet all those requirements, so that is why we’re using this program to find those candidates,” Dodd said.
Dodd noted that 1,400 people applied for one 911 communicator position with Halton police. While traditional hiring processes can take months to find the right candidate for training, the software can reduce that time to about one week.
Real-life scenarios
The AI is also designed to identify candidates with the aptitude and skills needed to handle emergency situations effectively.
“With the high volume of applications we receive, it is essential that we identify the strongest candidates as efficiently and effectively as possible,” Dodd said. “We will use this in our recruitment stage to reduce candidate evaluation time in half, improve successful 911 communicator sign-off and make hiring more data-driven, while providing job-relevant assessments that measure the skills needed to succeed in this challenging role.”
Beyond identifying candidates with the right skills and mindset, the platform can create 911 scenarios similar to those emergency service personnel encounter every day.
“That will be cool to experience, and that will help hone the skills,” Dodd said.
Strong focus on self-learning
These scenarios help dispatchers sharpen their decision-making, communication, and crisis management skills. There is also a strong focus on self-learning, as potential recruits can have their performance scored and evaluated in real time.
“They can track their progress, and it’ll help them become more successful,” Dodd said. “So that’s where we’re going to find the benefits in a few months from now, once people are starting to be able to review all their calls. And then their training bureau will be able to see the calls and be like, oh, like, hey, here’s something that maybe we should retrain.”
Dodd assured the public that recruits will still be well prepared for the demands of the job.
“They’re still going to get the very best training,” he said.
As for when the first recruits will begin working on the 911 floor, Dodd hopes to have them in place by the end of next year.
“We’re talking about Christmas 2027,” he said. “The person that’s working that night shift is a person that will be successfully hired from this class.”
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