--- title: "Seattle has been using AI to listen to every 911 medical call since 2023. Nobody was told." url: https://daily.dev/posts/seattle-has-been-using-ai-to-listen-to-every-911-medical-call-since-2023-nobody-was-told--vtyhj7nnx source_url: https://thenextweb.com/news/seattle-fire-department-corti-ai-911-calls-secret-surveillance type: article source: "The Next Web" published: 2026-06-15T18:38:11.636Z updated: 2026-06-15T18:38:36.248Z tags: ["ai-governance"] reading_time: 5 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Seattle has been using AI to listen to every 911 medical call since 2023. Nobody was told. **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Seattle's Fire Department has been using Corti, a Copenhagen-based AI startup, to listen to every 911 medical call in real time since December 2023 — without public disclosure, city council approval, or review under Seattle's surveillance ordinance (SMC 14.18). The AI prompts dispatchers to route certain callers to a nurse consultation line, and the department claims a 32% increase in such diversions since deployment. Critics, including a UW law professor, argue the system qualifies as surveillance technology under the ordinance. The case of Pamela Hogan, who died after being routed to a nurse line in 2022, illustrates the life-or-death stakes of such diversions. The story highlights a broader governance gap in municipal AI deployments for emergency services, where transparency and public oversight remain largely absent. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [New Orleans will use AI to answer 911 calls instead of a human](https://daily.dev/posts/new-orleans-will-use-ai-to-answer-911-calls-instead-of-a-human-nd6bofkvd) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [911 centers are so understaffed, they’re turning to AI to answer calls](https://daily.dev/posts/911-centers-are-so-understaffed-they-re-turning-to-ai-to-answer-calls-w9v7wehcy) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [An AI model trained on prison phone calls now looks for planned crimes in those calls](https://daily.dev/posts/an-ai-model-trained-on-prison-phone-calls-now-looks-for-planned-crimes-in-those-calls-h6esfjkq8) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-governance](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-governance) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/seattle-has-been-using-ai-to-listen-to-every-911-medical-call-since-2023-nobody-was-told--vtyhj7nnx)