A communication system (150) provides a portable radio (100) that retrieves public safety records in response to a verbal query entered thereto. The communication system (150) includes a bot gateway (122) for accessing and retrieving the public safety records from a plurality of remote public safety databases in response to the verbal query entered into the portable radio. The bot gateway (122) determines a criticality level for the retrieved public safety records. The bot gateway (122) temporarily stores the retrieved public safety records and sends a criticality code to the portable radio. The portable radio generates user alerts indicating the criticality level of the retrieved public safety records based on the code. The portable radio plays out the bot-retrieved search results in response to a further user input to the portable radio.