The El Cajon Police Department faced significant delays in emergency response for non-English speaking callers, with wait times for translation services stretching up to 10 minutes—a critical gap in serving their diverse community.

El Cajon PD adopted RapidSOS UNITE’s Communicator Module, leveraging HARMONY AI-powered live text translation, transcription, and call summarization to gain immediate understanding and enhance situational awareness.

The El Cajon Police Department in California, is led by Communications Manager Craig Groll, a veteran of the department who rose through the ranks from dispatcher to a leadership role. A firm believer in the power of technology to support his team, Groll is constantly seeking innovative tools to make his telecommunicators more effective and enhance the safety of their community.

For the team at El Cajon PD, one of the most stressful and dangerous situations was a 911 call where the caller didn’t speak English. Their third-party translation service was often overwhelmed, especially at night, leading to unacceptable wait times.

“When you’re waiting on hold that long, it’s just not acceptable for somebody that’s having a legitimate emergency. We can’t determine what’s going on or what kind of services they need.”

This communication gap meant critical information was delayed, response was slowed, and both community members and first responders were put at greater risk. The challenge was clear: they needed a way to understand and act, instantly.

As a technology advocate, Groll was intrigued by the AI capabilities within RapidSOS UNITE’s Communicator module. He saw the potential for HARMONY AI to not only solve their translation problem but also to provide a new level of operational awareness for his supervisors.

El Cajon PD rolled out this functionality in stages to ensure a smooth transition. The impact was immediate. Now, when a non-English speaking caller dials 911, telecommunicators don’t have to wait. While waiting for the voice translator, they can immediately initiate a two-way text conversation in the caller’s language.

“One of our supervisors used the text translation and said it was extremely beneficial,” Groll notes.

Beyond translation, the AI-powered call summaries have become a game-changer for supervisors. Instead of needing to listen in on individual calls to understand what’s happening, supervisors can now see a live, AI-generated summary of every active call. This gives them a real-time pulse of the entire room, allowing them to ensure quality, identify training opportunities, and provide support where it’s needed most—all at a glance.

The value of RapidSOS UNITE’s Communicator capabilities were felt on day one. “The first night I rolled it out center wide, I was at home and the night shift supervisor sent me a text message with a screenshot,” Groll recalls. “She said, ‘my new favorite thing. It’s awesome.’ The ability for a supervisor to just look at the AI transcription and call summary and be self-aware of what’s going on in the room is a huge benefit.”

This newfound oversight is particularly valuable for training the center’s younger generation of dispatchers. Supervisors can quickly and efficiently monitor call-handling, ensure protocols are followed, and confirm that critical information isn’t slipping through the cracks. For Groll, this real-time awareness provides an invaluable safety net.

Implementing new technology in a 24/7 emergency operations center always presents challenges. The deployment of UNITE’s Communicator capabilities required installing new hardware to process call data for the AI engine, a task involving layers of oversight and installation

“Every shop is different, and all the backroom equipment is different,” Groll says.

This partnership approach ensured the implementation was successful and minimized disruption to the ECC.

For a forward-thinking leader like Craig Groll, technology is a continuous journey. He sees the adoption of the new AI-powered communication capabilities in RapidSOS as not just as a solution for today, but as a platform for the future. He actively provides feedback to the RapidSOS team, helping to shape the future of the product with ideas like a consolidated dashboard for supervisors.

Groll is already looking ahead at how AI can further support his team, from offloading non-emergency call workloads to providing real-time prompts to guide dispatchers through complex calls.

This spirit of innovation and partnership is what makes the El Cajon Police Department a model for how technology can transform public safety.