Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
West Virginia's Marion County Upgrades to 911 Text Technology
Technology has been somewhat slow to catch up with public safety. The ability to send a text alert to a 911 call center is considered critical. It’s necessary for people who cannot speak, for instance, or those in a situation in which speaking would alert an attacker. (Think people hiding from an active shooter, or those calling to report domestic abuse.) Today, most public safety answering points (PSAPs) still cannot accept 911 calls via text message.
Many municipalities, however, are taking steps to make this vital service more widely available to provide more access to 911 for people with disabilities and those in situations when it is dangerous to make a voice call to request help, according to the federal government’s National 911 Program, which is housed within the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Emergency Medical Services.
In 2014, the nation’s largest wireless service providers, in conjunction with the Association of Public Safety Communication Officials (APCO) and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), agreed to provide all 911 call centers with the ability to receive texts. Since then, nearly 1,000 PSAPs across the nation have configured systems to receive text message requests for 911 services.
One of the latest to do so is Marion County in West Virginia. The Times West Virginia is reporting that Director of Marion County Department of Homeland Security Chris McIntire worked with Zuercher Technologies LLC, to implement the technology, which has cost the county about $180,000. The additional functionality became possible with Marion County’s recent upgrade of its phone system. The platform is based on Zeurcher’s ledsSuite product, which provides computer-aided dispatch, mapping, records management, and other law enforcement functions.
“We’ve been working for several months to get this done,” McIntire said. “There are seven counties in West Virginia that have Text-to-911, and we just became one of those seven.”
McIntire said the texts are fielded in the same manner a 911 phone call is handled.
“You’ll get a dispatcher [who will] have a dialogue with you through text messages,” McIntire said. “If someone is hearing or speech impaired, or there’s a home invasion or a domestic situation where you can’t call 911, you can now text 911.”
Edited by Luke Bellos