City of Reno Public Safety Dispatch handles 911 and non-emergency calls for law enforcement, fire, and EMS across one of the fastest-growing cities in the American West. Here’s how they used RapidSOS HARMONY AI to handle a surge in calls and give dispatchers back their focus.

Cody Shadle, Director of Reno Public Safety Dispatch, has spent 17 years in public safety. For most of that time, the same structural pressures persisted:

• High call volume across 911 and non-emergency lines — with not enough staff to absorb every surge
• Telecommunicators toggling between multiple platforms, creating cognitive overload and distraction
• A resistance to adding new technology — because every new screen made the job harder, not easier

“One of the biggest challenges is staffing — keeping up with the volume and workload that we manage,” Shadle said. “The more screens and more tools we put in front of dispatchers, the more difficult it becomes to manage.”

The discussion about RapidSOS started with conversations with peer agencies. Reno had helped build a statewide network of Nevada 911 leaders, and RapidSOS kept coming up in those conversations. Enough agencies were using it — and seeing results — that Shadle and his colleagues began pushing for collective statewide adoption.

RapidSOS was already integrated with the CAD vendors agencies were running, so there was no rip-and-replace requirement. And when Shadle posed his one condition — can we get all of these tools into one screen? — RapidSOS delivered.

“I’ve never looked at it from a vendor-client relationship,” Shadle said. “RapidSOS has been responsive to our needs. They’re willing to sit down at a very informal level and help us solve problems.”

After a Halloween surge overwhelmed non-emergency lines, the agency’s leadership looked ahead to New Year’s Eve with urgency: they needed a tool, fast.

Reno asked RapidSOS to build and deploy a conversational AI tool that could directly process non-emergency calls. By mid-December it was ready — designed to handle non-emergency reports naturally, without tying up a human telecommunicator. On New Year’s Eve, RapidSOS’ HARMONY AI processed noise complaints that would have otherwise increased total call volume by approximately 15%, and accounted for up to 50% of all calls during peak hours.

By the next morning, dispatchers were asking for it full time.

“They were able to focus on real emergencies — car accidents, medical calls,” said Sara Colacurcio, System Support Supervisor. “They could give those situations their full attention.”

Colacurcio’s message to other dispatch centers: it’s easier than you think. “I’m not tech savvy. I was like, ‘This is going to be a big lift.’ And within two and a half, three weeks, it was the easiest thing I’ve probably implemented in my role since starting.”

Dispatchers tested the AI themselves — asking it questions, probing its limits. They even invited stakeholders in their city manager’s office to gain buy-in for their efforts.

Beyond the non-emergency automation pilot, HARMONY AI’s call transcription and live summarization has changed Reno’s day-to-day operations. Dispatchers get a structured summary of each active call as it unfolds — surfacing details faster than anyone can type into CAD.

For multi-caller incidents, the summaries let dispatchers build a composite picture in real time. “It’s like being a camera looking at the story from five different angles,” Colacurcio said. “You’re able to build the real story.” Supervisors also use the data to monitor the emotional toll on their teams — seeing not just what calls are coming in, but what impact they’re having on the people taking them.

• ~15% call volume handled by AI
  Noise complaints deflected by AI would have increased total NYE call volume by 15% if handled by telecommunicators.
• Up to 50% of peak-hour calls deflected
  Noise-related calls at peak would have accounted for up to half of all calls — handled instead by HARMONY.
• Immediate demand for permanent rollout
  Dispatchers asked for the tool full time within hours of the pilot completing
• Richer context on every call
  Dispatchers use AI transcription to catch details beyond what they captured live, building a fuller picture of each incident.