December 23, 2025

The Baltimore Sun

by Jean Marbella

Fifteen years later, Maryland Sen. Cheryl Kagan said she still thinks of her friend Carl Henn, struck

by lightning during a fierce storm that swept through Rockville and whose friends got busy signals when

they dialed 911.

“People were calling about a tree falling in their driveway,” Kagan said. “If we had been able to

offload some of those calls, maybe Carl’s calls might have gotten through.”

Henn was a beloved environmental activist whose death two days later from heart damage

helped inspire improvements to the 911 system — and now, Kagan hopes, its non-emergency sibling,

311.

Kagan, a Democrat who has served in Maryland’s Senate since 2015, chaired a legislative

workgroup that in November unanimously voted to recommend that Maryland create a statewide 311

system, filling in the gaps for those jurisdictions that don’t already have one, and further reducing the

number of non-emergency calls that continue to go to 911.

About 58% of Maryland residents currently have access to 311, the workgroup’s report said, with

systems operating in Baltimore City and five Maryland counties, Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Montgomery,

Prince George’s and St. Mary’s. But even in those jurisdictions, 311 isn’t always available — St. Mary’s

has an online, but not phone-based system, for example, and in Kagan’s home county of Montgomery,

phone-in service is not available on nights and weekends.

Without complete 311 coverage, Kagan said, 911 remains unduly burdened. She cited a

“shocking” statistic from an article in The Baltimore Sun several years ago: 80% of 911 calls were non-

emergencies.

“Rather than dealing with the house that is on fire or the baby not breathing, they’re dealing

with calls about potholes or a tree down,” she said.

If Maryland ultimately installs a statewide 311 network, it would be the first in the nation,

appropriately enough, as Baltimore was the first U.S. city to adopt the non-emergency line as part of a

federal pilot program. The Sun reported early growing pains, including 23% of callers hanging up before

anyone answered, with many apparently calling 911 for a quicker response.

Kagan said recent technological advances, particularly in artificial intelligence, have made a

statewide system “more affordable and plausible.” One vendor quoted an estimated cost of less than

$500,000 for such a system, which Kagan said, even if it ultimately turned out to be double or triple that,

would still be worth it for what the state would get.

Still, any new spending will face scrutiny at a time when the state has to close a budget shortfall,

said Kevin Kinnally, legislative director for the Maryland Association of Counties and a member of the

311 workgroup.

“Anything with a fiscal note will be challenging in the 2026 [legislative] session,” he said.

He is “really optimistic,” though, that creating a system that provides equitable access to

government services via 311 will be viewed as worth the cost.

The workgroup is recommending an estimated 18- to 24-month phased-in process, according to

its report.

Initially, four counties, two with and two without existing 311 systems, would test-drive an AI

chatbot that would respond with info only from approved sources such as government websites. An

oversight board would be created to set standards and provide accountability.

Then, voicebots would be added for those who prefer that or don’t have digital access. The goal

is for a “no wrong door” structure, where calls can be transferred to 911, 211 (for health and human

services Information) and other services, the report said.

Finally, state officials would analyze data such as the percentage of calls resolved without human

intervention, how average handling time compares to live agents and caller satisfaction to help

determine whether to roll out a statewide system.

Kagan said that while there is resistance to even more AI in our lives — “I push ‘0’ and ‘0’ and ‘0’

till I get a human,” she acknowledges — people want information quickly. Additionally, she said, there

would still be a way to escalate more complicated queries to a human.

While 311 systems began as phone-based, many have expanded to include online access and

apps, said one expert, University of Oregon professor Benjamin Clark.

Clark, who directs the university’s School of Planning, Public Policy and Management, credits 311

systems with “making government services more accessible to residents … and making it easier for

people to see that their government is working for them.”

But he has questions about how what is essentially a local service could be scaled up to the state

level.

“I would applaud the idea of having something like this, although the system for installing it

would be very complicated,” Clark said. “Every local government does everything differently. In Baltimore

City, how a street gets cleaned is different from in Hyattsville.”

A county may handle some services itself, while others are performed by its individual cities, he

said, and a neighboring county might have an entirely different division of labor. And on top of that,

some roads might be the responsibility of the state or the feds, or parts of town where a school district

or even a homeowners association has authority, Clark said.

Perhaps rather than a Maryland-wide system, the state could support local jurisdictions in

developing their own 311s, he said.

Kinnally said “the rapid evolution” of technology can route 311 users to where they need to go.

“It’s essentially run by AI,” he said. “It gets people to the right place.”

Kagan said a statewide 311 “is not a magic wand that will solve all problems right away.” But, she

said, it’s a way to make sure that residents across the state, whether their jurisdictions are wealthier or

not, have the same access to government services.

A lot of details remain to be worked out, she said. Local and county governments, for example,

will have to update any websites to which callers are directed, she said.

“They’ll need to get rid of outdated websites,” she said, “like for July 4th fireworks for 1999.”