Among the bills signed into law on Tuesday, one allows anyone in Maryland to call 311 to get information on government services in their area.
Maryland State Sen. Cheryl Kagan said the bill will take some of the burden off 911 services.
“If someone literally has their house on fire, or grandma isn’t breathing or they were just assaulted, they call 911 and they may be put on hold for a while,” Kagan said.
She and State Sen. Paul Corderman, another co-sponsor of the bill, as they learned that emergency call centers can get calls ranging from noise complaints to requests for pothole fixes. Kagan said the problem is one of awareness.
At a young age, Kagan said, “People are taught to dial 911 when they need help, so that’s their default.”
Under the bill signed into law by Gov. Wes Moore, the 311 system will be rolled out in stages.
Kagan said the system will employ artificial intelligence.
“We will be using both a chatbot and a voicebot,” she said. “People are getting more and more used to that kind of response system.”
There will also be a number of ways to access the 311 system, Kagan said: “Some people will prefer to dial 311, others might prefer an app on their phone, and still others might prefer to go to a website.”
She added that there will be quality control assessments throughout the rollout process.
As the service becomes available, a public education campaign will be launched.
“A lot of people have never heard of 311 and they’re not quite sure how to use it,” she said.
Kagan said there will also be a way to seamlessly transfer calls that should have gone to either 911 or 988, the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
“The expectation is that the system will be fully operational by the end of 2027,” she said.
See the signed into law Tuesday.
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