Brown County 911 dispatch. (Fox 11 Online)
BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) — Brown County Public Safety Communications (BCPSC) is now live with Aurelian (AVA), which is designed to manage routine, non-emergency calls.
This does not include 911 calls, only calls that currently go to BCPSC’s non-emergency phone tree. Brown County leaders say the new technology will help create additional capacity for dispatchers, allowing them to focus more fully on 911 emergencies and critical radio communications.
“This change will not impact staffing levels or reduce the quality-of-service residents and public safety agencies rely on,” said Chancy Huntzinger, Director of Brown County Public Safety Communications. “This new technology will create more capacity in our system to better serve the community, especially during periods of high call volume.”
In 2025, BCPSC handled approximately 160,000 incoming non-emergency calls. Moving forward, AVA will handle these routine and non-urgent calls. Aurelian designed AVA to help residents get information quickly and connect them with the right resources while ensuring emergency dispatchers are available to assist with the most serious situations.
AVA holds natural conversations with callers and should not be used as a phone tree. Members of the community should tell the system exactly what they’re calling about, if you want to file a complaint, etc. Callers will have an option to request a live dispatcher. If AVA identifies a situation that may require an emergency response, the caller will be transferred to a dispatcher. This system has also undergone several months of testing and can assist callers in over 55 languages.
Brown County Public Safety Communications joins communities such as Waukesha, La Crosse, and Dane County that use AVA for calls to their non-emergency lines. The annual cost of the platform is $110,000. The county received a grant from the state Office of Emergency Communications within the Department of Military Affairs, which covered 90% of the cost.
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