Public Sector
Key figures
- 56% Cut in dispatchers' call load in the past 30 days, as KAIT reports. No method or baseline published. (KAIT, 29 Oct 2026)
- Nearly 5,000 Calls Lezle answered from Sept. 29 to Oct. 28. Dispatchers say it resolves more than half of them itself. (KAIT, 29 Oct 2026)
Figures from KAIT and dispatchers, not a city or county document. Non-emergency lines only; Lezle never answers 911.
At a 911 center, a call about a records request and a call about a fire can ring at the same time, and on some shifts there are only three people to answer them. Jonesboro, Ark., has put a machine on the first kind of call so its dispatchers can take the second.
The machine is an AI call taker the center named Lezle. Local station KAIT reported on Oct. 29 that Lezle, "the system answering non-emergency calls in Craighead County for nearly two months, has cut dispatchers' call load by 56% in the past 30 days." KAIT adds: "From Sept. 29 to Oct. 28, Lezle answered nearly 5,000 calls. Dispatchers say it resolves more than half of them itself, especially when people need help with clerical matters, such as records or warrants, then transfers callers to the correct person."
The center is run by the City of Jonesboro. According to the city, Jonesboro E911 dispatches for the Craighead County Sheriff's Department and police and fire departments across the county, "providing non-emergency and emergency 9-1-1 services to the citizens of Craighead County." When Lezle started in September, KAIT reported that "staffing limitations mean that some shifts run with as few as three dispatchers on duty" and that the center employs 22 full-time dispatchers working 12-hour shifts.
Lezle does not answer 911. "She's never going to answer a 911 call," training coordinator Cristy Hundley told KAIT in September. "And if she determines that a non-emergency call is actually an emergency, she's going to send it straight to a dispatcher right then." Dispatcher Terra Summers told KAIT in October that trigger words such as "emergency," "breathing" or "fire" immediately transfer a caller to a live dispatcher. On the non-emergency lines, KATV reported that Lezle can "text callers information and direct them to a website or online form," or enter a non-emergent call "into the system for an officer to be dispatched," and that "Live dispatchers will be monitoring the system at all times."
For the people on the floor, the point is time. "We're trying to run a radio while also answering the 911s, while also answering the non-emergencies," dispatcher Savannah Tinsley said in September. "It relieves a lot of stress and extra workload." In October, Summers put it this way: "70 hours might not sound like a lot, but when you think about the majority of calls taking five minutes or less, that's a lot of calls, so she's definitely made a positive impact." KAIT does not say what period the 70 hours covers.
It has made mistakes. Early on, Summers said, Lezle told a caller reporting an accident, "Please go online to file this accident report." "Well, with any car accident, we're going to send an officer," she said. Dispatchers report errors to upper administration, which fixes them or sends them to the programmer.
The software comes from Prepared by AXON. When the city council approved it in January, KAIT reported that "The software carries a price tag of around $200,000 per year," and that E-911 Director Ronnie Sturch said savings from dropping other services, including a call tree and a translation service, would offset it. Deputy director Mellenee Bennett told KAIT that "The AI program is not designed to replace any dispatcher."
Jonesboro resident Nicholas Sides, who has not called Lezle, told KAIT he is wary of AI but watching. "I just think that we need to use it in the right ways," he said. A published count from the city, with its method, is what would show whether the 56% holds.
Jonesboro E-911's AI call taker cut dispatchers' call load 56%, local TV reports
Lezle, an AI system on the non-emergency lines at Jonesboro's E-911 center in Craighead County, Ark., "has cut dispatchers' call load by 56% in the past 30 days," KAIT reports. The figures come from the station and dispatchers, not a published city count.