Supplementary Materials - Artificial Intelligence in Emergency Dispatch Centers: Practitioner Insights on Current Use and Future Directions

These are the Supplemental Materials for the study "Artificial Intelligence in Emergency Dispatch Centers: Practitioner Insights on Current Use and Future Directions."

This project explores practitioner sentiments, perceived barriers, implementation strategies, and opportunities for integrating AI into emergency dispatch systems. Virtual interviews were conducted with 19 county coordinators and directors from 9-1-1 dispatch centers and Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) across Michigan. Findings reveal generally positive, but cautious, attitudes toward AI adoption, with participants emphasizing its potential to improve operational efficiency, dispatcher workload, quality assurance (e.g., transcription), and non-emergency call handling (e.g., triage). However, identified barriers, including issues of trust and system reliability, were found to outweigh perceived opportunities, underscoring the need for gradual implementation and further evidence of AI’s effectiveness and equity in practice. The study contributes to the limited empirical literature at the intersection of AI and emergency communications by proposing a pathway forward that emphasizes responsible and effective integration, accompanied by a detailed discussion of AI deployment in 9-1-1 systems that addresses bias mitigation and other key implementation considerations.