“Call if you can; text if you can’t,” Snohomish County, Washington, Dispatch Executive Director Kurt Mills told the Herald Net when a study found that the county’s emergency texting service was misused more than 900 times in 10 months.
According to EMS1.com, dispatchers say it’s easier to process a call than a 911 text.
911 texting services are designed for situations when calling could be unsafe, and also for hard of hearing or speech-impaired individuals to connect to public safety and emergency services. However, there’s a few caveats to the system’s utility:
- 911 texting services usually do not handle video or photo messages.
- Emergency texting is not available when a device is roaming out of its service area.
- It can take up to several minutes for 911 dispatch to receive emergency texts, depending on cellular service.
Despite the cons of 911 texting services, Los Angeles County is rolling out Text-to-911 and New York City rolled out its program mid-year with next generation 911 service, which will handle photos, video and social media interaction, by 2022, according to City and State New York.
Text-to-911 is now available throughout Los Angeles County! “Call if you can, text if you can’t.” For emergencies only & not a replacement for voice calls. Should be used by deaf & hard of hearing & when you cannot safely make a voice call. #Textto911 @LAPDHQ pic.twitter.com/LKuJEujjS4
— LAPD Communications Division (@911LAPD) December 1, 2017
Last year, about 650 out of more than 6,000 dispatch centers could accept text messages. More than 150 were expected to make the text-to-911 upgrade in 2017, the Federal Communications Commission had said.
