In this episode of TiPS: Today in Public Safety, Fletch dives into a topic that sounds futuristic but is already knocking on the ECC door: AI-powered “dispatch doppelgängers.” These aren’t JUST chatbots, scripts, or templates — they’re digital twins of your best call takers, created from real performance data to help with training, simulations, and overflow triage.

Fletch breaks down what these AI replicas are, why they’re emerging now, and how they fit into the broader evolution of NG911 and modern public safety communications. We explore how these digital twins can support new dispatchers during training, run large-scale incident simulations, and even help lighten the load during storms, surges, and unpredictable high-traffic events.

But most importantly, this episode addresses the big fear head-on:

No — AI is not replacing call takers.

Instead, it’s becoming a support layer that strengthens consistency, quality, and readiness across the center. Think of it as giving your ECC a digital partner who never gets tired, never calls out sick, and never forgets the callback number. Think of it like your computer word processor, replacing your typewriter, which replaced physical punch-cards, which replaced yellow notepads and scrap paper.

We also dive into the uncomfortable but necessary stuff: ownership of performance data, liability, disclosure, legal chain of custody, and what happens when a digital twin performs better than the real thing. Fletch lays out the questions every ECC leader should be thinking about today before this technology becomes tomorrow’s standard.

If you’re a dispatcher, supervisor, ECC director, technologist, or just someone watching the rapid evolution of public safety tech — this episode will give you a clear, practical look at where AI fits, where it doesn’t, and how to prepare for what’s coming.