Emergency handling is the reason most property managers look at Doorkeep in the first place. Here is how it works.
Two kinds of urgent calls
Danger to a person. Fire, smoke, gas, carbon monoxide, an injury, an intruder. Doorkeep recommends that the caller call 9-1-1. It does not connect or transfer the caller to anyone during a life-threatening emergency, including your Call List. When it has the caller's name, unit, or property, it sends you an alert, and the call is recorded and summarized for you.
Urgent property problems. A water leak, no heat, a sewage backup, and the other situations on your escalation list. Doorkeep rings your Call List in order, with a short briefing before the caller is connected. Starter rings one person you choose; Professional rings a list in the order you set.
Other emergencies that are not an immediate danger to a person also ring your Call List.
You choose what counts as urgent
Your escalation list starts with twelve common situations, all turned on. Turn any of them off and that call is handled like any other maintenance call. On Professional, you can add a note for a property, and Doorkeep reads your note, word for word, exactly as you approved it. Danger-to-a-person calls are handled separately and can't be switched off.
If nobody picks up
Doorkeep tells the caller it could not get them connected and that it is flagging the call for you, then takes a detailed message. The call is recorded and transcribed either way, and you are notified based on your notification settings.
It leans toward reaching you
Doorkeep is designed to treat a call as urgent when there is doubt. A false alarm at 2am is a smaller problem than a missed burst pipe. Emergency handling can't be switched off.
What Doorkeep will not do
It will not tell a caller to evacuate, shut off a water main, unplug an appliance, or take any other protective action. The agent detects, connects, and documents. Giving safety instructions is outside its role, by design.
Doorkeep is not an emergency service
No AI system catches every situation. If a caller describes an emergency in a way Doorkeep does not detect, they will not be redirected. The 9-1-1 recommendation is a courtesy, not a dispatch. Doorkeep does not replace 9-1-1 and is not a substitute for your own emergency procedures.
The Terms of Service include explicit emergency services disclaimers. The Trust and Compliance page covers this in plain language.