Strengthening Human Intervention in Emergencies through Learning with Data and AI (SHIELD)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
NIST Project Award # 60NANB24D145, “Enhancing Emergency Communications Resiliency and Effectiveness Through AI”
This project was supported by the late Congressman Rep Gerry Connolly, VA 11th District.
The project team acknowledges the partnership of the Fairfax County Department of Public Safety Communications.
GOAL AND OBJECTIVES:
The main goal of the project is to leverage the use of AI to enhance resiliency of emergency communication, in order to ultimately support emergency preparedness for both public safety agencies and citizens they serve. The project is currently focused on Fairfax County and its neighboring areas in collaboration with the Fairfax County Department of Public Safety Communications (DPSC).
By introducing AI-powered tools for training and educating the community regarding proper use of 9-1-1 services, the project aims to improve the readiness and performance of public safety communications operations, particularly through enhanced training and increased community engagement. Specifically, the project includes two primary objectives.
1. Enhance 9-1-1 call taker training:
The new call-taker recruits at the public safety communications departments traditionally undergo a comprehensive training program, which includes classroom learning, role-playing by instructors for practicing simulated call scenarios, as well as live sit-along training with experienced call takers. However, trainees sometimes feel underprepared for the challenges of real-time 9-1-1 calls, such as handling a variety of scenarios different from training and properly using Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) codes due to a lack of extensive practice.
Given the limited staffing, instructors are unable to spend extensive hours of role-playing calls. Thus, this project aims to build an AI system with a voicebot for call simulation tailored to DPSC’s curriculum, a dashboard for progress tracking, and a session planner to schedule practice sessions where the trainees need help. This voice enabled chatbot will provide personalized conversation-based scenario training, allowing trainees to simulate real-world calls at their own pace during their comprehensive training program. The training management tool will help familiarize them with CAD codes, reinforce response protocols, and offer a training dashboard for instructors to monitor progress and refine training plans.
2. Enhance customer service experience through community engagement:
In addition to the work carried out by DPSC outreach team to help the community, there is a rising need to engage and educate the community regarding the proper use of emergency services including 9-1-1.
This part of the project aims to support community outreach and education initiatives within the Fairfax County communities by addressing the public perception, attitudes, and misconceptions about 9-1-1 emergency services. For increasing the awareness of roles and responsibilities of 9-1-1 call takers, the initiative will conduct focus groups and townhalls with community members and prepare educational materials. The insights gained through these engagement activities will contribute to understanding customer service expectations that can further enhance DPSC’s training processes through planning different call scenarios.
UPDATES:
- Our project team is looking forward to actively participating in the APCO AI Summit in Orlando, FL: https://apcosummits.org/ai/ai-program/
- This project’s story was featured by Fairfax County Times: https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/george-mason-university-and-fairfax-9-1-1-partner-on-ai-training-system/article_3b609c79-f979-4948-aa3f-30fd8befae48.html
- The College of Engineering and Computing at George Mason University featured our project recently: https://www.gmu.edu/news/2025-09/dialing-new-9-1-1-training-ai
- The project team successfully conducted two rounds of system testing at Fairfax County DPSC, August 2025.
- The system was demonstrated to the City of Virginia Beach Emergency Communications & Citizen Services, August 2025.
- The system demo at the NIST Public Safety Innovation Summit, aka 5×5 Summit, in Seattle received high praise for the innovation in enhancing 9-1-1 center training process, June 2025: https://5×5.firstnet.gov/overview-2025/
TEAM:
- Dr. Paul Houser, Professor, College of Science; Executive Director of C-RASC; PI
- Dr. Hemant Purohit, Associate Professor, College of Engineering and Computing; Co-director of C-RASC; Co-PI
- Dr. Linton Wells II, Executive Advisor to C-RASC; Co-PI
- Dr. Kathy Laskey, Professor Emerita, College of Engineering and Computing; Founding Director of C-RASC; Co-PI
- Dr. Karina Korostelina, Professor, Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution; Co-PI
- Ramya S. Nayaka, Ph.D. Student, College of Engineering and Computing
- Hamad Edhah Yaslam Aldhlea, Ph.D. Student, Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution
- Ritesh Somashekar, MS Student, College of Engineering and Computing
- Consultant: Dr. Jocelyn Barrett
- Industry partners: OmniBot Advisors and BlueHorse Digital
CONTACT POINT:
Dr. Hemant Purohit, [email protected]
Dr. Lin Wells II: [email protected]