Seattle Fire Department used AI to route 911 calls for two years without public knowledge

Seattle 911 AI Operates Without Public Knowledge

The Seattle Fire Department has been using Corti AI to listen to 911 medical calls since December 2023, operating the system for more than two years without informing the public or seeking formal review 1

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. The Denmark-based Corti's AI monitors calls in real time and prompts dispatchers to route certain patients to a nurse-staffed Texas call center rather than send an ambulance. This lack of public disclosure has sparked concerns about transparency and accountability in emergency services, particularly given Seattle's existing surveillance ordinance that requires city council approval before deploying technologies that observe individuals in ways likely to raise civil liberties or social justice concerns 2

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AI to Route 911 Calls Bypasses Surveillance Ordinance

Seattle's surveillance ordinance, codified as SMC 14.18 and passed in 2017, requires city departments to obtain council approval before deploying any technology that observes, monitors, or collects data about individuals. The Seattle Fire Department never submitted Corti for review under this ordinance, claiming the system does not qualify as surveillance technology because it does not store call audio or identify individual callers 2

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. Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington and co-director of the university's Tech Policy Lab, challenged this interpretation. "A person who is erroneously routed outside of the 911 environment has a right to know how it happened," Calo told The Seattle Times 1

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. The distinction between surveillance and decision-support is not one the ordinance explicitly draws, raising legal concerns about whether the department's deployment violated the city's own rules.

Nurse Consultation Line and Call Diversion Rates Disputed

SFD Medical Director Michael Sayre claimed in a 2024 Corti press release that AI to listen to 911 medical calls had driven a 50% increase in nurse line routing since deployment. An SFD spokesperson later corrected that figure to 32%, though neither number has been independently verified 2

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. The discrepancy underscores the absence of external oversight and raises questions about the accuracy of the department's own data. While nurse consultation lines have been used for years to handle lower-acuity calls and free up ambulances for emergencies, the introduction of AI prompting in December 2023 added a layer of automated judgment that callers remain unaware of. SFD Assistant Chief Chris Lombard emphasized that dispatchers retain final authority over routing decisions, even when receiving AI prompts 1

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Delayed Ambulance Response and Ethical Concerns

The nurse line has drawn scrutiny following the 2022 case of Pamela Hogan, a 71-year-old retiree who called 911 reporting knee pain, was routed to the nurse line, waited more than 10 hours for a callback, and was later found dead in her apartment. Her estate is now suing the city, and the lawsuit cleared a dismissal hurdle earlier this year 1

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. While Hogan's death predates Corti's live AI prompting by more than a year, the case demonstrates the consequences when callers are diverted away from emergency response. It raises ethical concerns about whether an AI system that increases the rate of such diversions should face public scrutiny before deployment, particularly when it affects people in moments of acute vulnerability.

AI Governance Framework and Spreading Technology

Mayor Katie Wilson said her administration is developing a public-facing AI governance framework that will "center human flourishing and serving the public good" 1

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. However, the Corti system was already running for months before any governance framework was announced, with no indication that the fire department sought or received mayoral approval. The practice is spreading across Washington state, with Snohomish and Kitsap counties recently deploying AI agents on non-emergency lines and the Tri-Cities area launching similar systems 1

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. Snohomish County uses a different AI system called Ava, built by Aurelian, for non-emergency calls and reports handling more than 220,000 of them 2

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. These deployments differ from Seattle's in that they are limited to non-emergency calls, while Corti listens to all 911 medical calls, including those that may involve life-threatening emergencies. Corti raised $60 million in a Series B round and works with emergency services in multiple countries, though the Seattle Fire Department first partnered with Corti in 2021 for triage support before expanding to live AI prompting in December 2023 2

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