Sheriff: Amazon’s Alexa can’t call 911

Victim in beating case still believes smart speaker helped save her

Although Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales credited Amazon’s Alexa smart speaker with calling 911 and possibly helping save a woman’s life during a domestic violence incident earlier this month, he held a Facebook live news conference Wednesday morning to say the technology cannot make that call by itself.

But, he said, the victim in the case continues to believe there was a way for the technology in the home to be configured in order to make that possible.

Alexa is the name of the voice that controls the Amazon Echo hands-free speaker. An Amazon spokeswoman said Alexa cannot call 911 and can only call another Amazon Echo device or a device with the Alexa app.

Gonzales said detectives and deputies have not tried to figure out if an Alexa smart speaker could call 911. He said that evidence does not impact the case and they have been too busy to test it.

The Tijeras incident generated national and even international attention last week after the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office reported that on July 2 a man who they say hit his girlfriend with a gun and kicked her repeatedly accidentally triggered a call to 911 through the Alexa speaker.

They said Eduardo Barros, 28, asked his girlfriend “Did you call the sheriff?” triggering the speaker to call the sheriff. The woman can be heard yelling for Alexa to call 911 in tapes released by BCSO.

Barros was arrested after a SWAT standoff, and is charged with aggravated battery on a household member, false imprisonment and other crimes. He is still in jail.