SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — If you called Crime Check Wednesday afternoon, you might have been surprised to hear an AI voice on the other end.

Spokane Regional Emergency Communications tested its new AI system for two hours, letting artificial intelligence handle Crime Check non-emergency calls instead of human operators.

"I am the non-emergency automated assistant here to help you. How can I help you?" the AI tells callers when asked if it is AI.

The test ran from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday after six weeks of preparation. If results look good, SREC hopes to launch the system by the end of this year.

Here's why they're doing it: Crime Check gets over 250,000 calls every year.

But only about half actually need immediate police response. The rest are questions, requests for information, or

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