Denver's non-emergency number gets an automated operator

DENVER — People calling the Denver Police Department’s non-emergency number will be greeted by an automated operator instead of a live human come Thursday, the city announced Wednesday.

Callers into the non-emergency line, which is 720-913-2000, will be able to tell the interactive voice response (IVR) system what they need assistance with, and they will be routed to the appropriate city entity, person, or information, according to a news release.

Calls to 911 will still be handled by humans.

“This IVR represents the continued commitment of Denver 9-1-1 to leverage modern technology to better serve our community, upgrading a legacy system that has not changed in decades,” said 9-1-1 Director Andrew Dameron in a news release.

Officials said callers to the non-emergency line will still be able to talk to a real person by requesting a live operator. The computer will also transfer calls to a live person if the system does not understand what a caller says or cannot assist with the request.

The city said the new IVR system was launched to better handle the nearly 1 million calls the service receives yearly.