Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA), the regional 911 center serving Clark County, has launched AVA, an AI-powered assistant designed to answer non-emergency calls more quickly and improve access to public safety services for the community, CRESA announced in a news release.
With AVA, residents who call 311 can get help faster. Additionally, AVA can assist callers in English, Spanish, Ukrainian and Russian. It can help send callers to the right resource, collect information for non-emergency calls, and may send a followup text with helpful information or links.
Unlike a traditional automated phone tree, AVA is designed for natural conversation. Callers do not need to listen for prompts or use keypad selections — they can simply explain why they’re calling in their own words, just as they would with a live call-taker.
The system only answers 311 non-emergency calls. If a caller describes an emergency or a situation requiring immediate response, the call is automatically transferred to a live call-taker.
“Our telecommunicators are the critical link between our community and the first responders,” said Dave Fuller, director of CRESA. “Every non-emergent or routine call that AVA handles is time and focus returned to answering and responding to emergency calls. For the people we serve, that means quicker access to help when it matters most.”
CRESA serves more than 500,000 residents across Clark County and answers both emergency and non-emergency calls for local law enforcement, fire agencies and EMS partners. By helping manage routine non-emergency calls, AVA helps reduce wait times, improve accessibility for callers, and help ensure telecommunicators remain available for urgent emergencies, particularly during periods of high call volume.
Agencies across the country using AVA have reported substantial reductions in non-emergency hold times and improved availability of emergency telecommunicators. The technology is designed to support public safety agencies facing increasing call volumes and ongoing staffing challenges while maintaining direct access to trained emergency telecommunicators when needed.
“Dispatch centers across the country are being asked to do more with the same teams, and the agencies that respond best are the ones that find ways to protect their telecommunicators’ time,” said Max Keenan, CEO and founder of Aurelian. “CRESA has built a strong regional operation that serves a large and growing population. Deploying AVA means their call-takers and dispatchers can meet every emergency without being pulled away by calls that don’t require them.”
CRESA is Clark County’s regional public safety communications agency, answering 911 and 311 calls and dispatching law enforcement, fire and partnering with EMS for the cities of Battle Ground, Camas, La Center, Ridgefield, Vancouver, Washougal and Yacolt. The agency serves more than 500,000 residents as the shared communications resource for multiple local public safety agencies.
For more information, visit cresa.wa.gov.
Aurelian develops technology designed to support public safety communications agencies through non-emergency call automation and real-time assistance tools for telecommunicators.
For more information, visit aurelian.com.
