10/05/2026
The Norfolk Police Department’s Emergency 911 (E911) Division has launched a new tool, Amazon Web Services (AWS), to assist with the handling of select non-emergency-related calls and other informational inquiries being received by the call center each day.
The AI-powered service aims to make the division’s services operate more efficiently by providing residents with faster answers to those frequently asked questions and non-emergency matters, without having to wait on hold for a live agent.
“If you have a question unrelated to an emergency situation, there’s no reason for you to wait when this system is available to assist you by answering your call almost immediately,” said Steven Summerlin, Norfolk Police Department’s E911 Manager. “However, if a caller does prefer to speak with a live telecommunicator, they can simply say, ‘I want to speak to an agent,’ and it will redirect the caller over to a non-emergency line where they will be helped by the next available call taker.”
This service is part of the department’s ongoing commitment to improving and enhancing public safety services.
By automating non-emergency lines to handle routine inquiries, the E911 Division can improve call takers’ 911 response times during peak, high-volume periods by freeing staff to focus on true emergencies.
“As 911 calls remain the number one priority of the E911 Division, the non-emergency lines will always experience those longer wait times,” said Summerlin. “This technology will provide us with a solution for the residents needing an answer but not emergency help.”
With E911 personnel answering more than 250,000 police, fire and medical calls, and approximately 150,000 administrative calls annually, the Amazon AWS system will ensure emergency telecommunicators can remain focused on critical incidents requiring extended time and rapid response, while also reducing hold times for non-emergency lines.
The Amazon AWS system is expected to divert roughly 35-40 percent of the non-emergency-related calls immediately upon going into use.
Norfolk Police reminds the public that the AI-powered system will only be used on non-emergency lines, and all calls received on 911 lines will continue to be answered by trained E911 telecommunicators.
