Texting 911 Becoming a Reality in Iowa County

By: Jim McKay on June 10, 2009

Most Popular

Most Commented

2011's Weather Is a Precursor of Things to Come, says NOAA Assistant Administrator

"We, as emergency response personnel, can do all the things we do, hold public forums, construct stor"
How Recovery Is Ingrained in Waffle House’s Culture

"Excellent summary on private sector response and disaster intelligence gathering! Kudos to Waffle Ho"
PPD-8 and the National Preparedness System

"Eric, I agree with your observation about the "evolution" to PPD-8 and the jumbled termino"
No Over-Reaction Reported from National EAS Test

"I heard some media outlets saying that the test "failed" because it wasn't delivered in th"

Police Encourage Citizens to Text Their Crime Tips

The speech and hearing impaired in Black Hawk County, Iowa, will soon have the ability communicate via text message with a 911 operator during an emergency.

A team of vendors -- including Intrado, i wireless, Positron Public Safety Systems and RACOM -- demonstrated the technology during a successful pilot. The county is scheduled to go live with the 911 texting some time in July.

The ability to text to 911 operators will allow the hearing and speech impaired to communicate wherever they are rather than relying on special home technology or a relay center. Texting also is seen as beneficial to the population as a whole since it's becoming a means of communicating by so many.

"We do know of situations where people can't talk," said Barbara Vos, E911 program manager of the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department. "They still want to be able to provide [texting] to everyone in the future, but this is a baby step. This is one carrier with one county that we're testing."

Vos said text messaging may fill a void but it's still not as efficient as picking up a phone and calling 911. "We know text messaging could have a delay because it's not sent instantly like a phone call."

You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to
http://www.emergencymgmt.com/safety/Texting-911-Becoming-a.html

Comments

Add Your Comment

You are solely responsible for the content of your comments. We reserve the right to remove comments that are considered profane, vulgar, obscene, factually inaccurate, off-topic, or considered a personal attack.