Can’t call 911? Now you can send a text
Wilsonville joins other Portland metro-area agencies in rolling out a new text-to-911 service
The ubiquity of 911 is one of the most important features of the emergency response system in the United States. Any person can dial 911 on any phone and immediately connect to the closest emergency dispatchers, no matter where they are.
But sometimes calling 911 isn’t an option in an emergency, and that’s why the Clackamas County Department of Communications (which serves Wilsonville) is joining seven other emergency departments to implement text-to-911 service. The service is intended to serve anyone in a situation where a voice call might not be possible, such as a deaf person without access to a TTY device, a domestic violence victim or a person with a weak cell phone connection.
Installation and training took place in the first half of 2016 and a public education campaign will continue through the end of the year. The system is already up and running; officials expect to start receiving more emergency texts once the public outreach ramps up.
The system uses Web-based software from TeleCommunications Systems Inc. that looks a bit like an instant messaging chat on dispatchers’ computer screens. Emergency staff are alerted when new messages come in, and the texts are automatically sorted into conversation threads. Dispatchers can type responses or quickly select from a list of phrases, such as ‘Please tell me your name and location.’
The software is paid for by Oregon’s 911 tax, and the consortium also received a grant to fund the public education efforts. All the agencies in the consortium had to be ready to go before the system could be publicly rolled out.
The wide footprint is necessary in case the texts go to the wrong service. Voice calls to 911 are routed to the nearest dispatch center based on the caller’s location, but the accuracy of the location provided by a text can vary substantially based on the provider and cell tower, so dispatchers need to be able to quickly forward conversations to nearby jurisdictions.
The limited accuracy also means it’s critical for users to tell dispatchers their location when communicating by text. Dispatchers will automatically see a map of the user’s approximate position, but since the text locations are imprecise, the map isn’t always reliable.
The Federal Communications Commission requires all cell phone carriers to route 911 texts to the nearest emergency service and to immediately send a “bounce-back” message if the text can’t be delivered, informing the sender that they must call 911 instead. In other words, every 911 text will receive some sort of reply, so senders don’t have to worry about whether they’re inside the service area or whether their message was received.
Members of the consortium and the FCC stress that text-to-911 is not intended to replace voice calls and should only be used if necessary. Texts have a limited number of characters, offer less-precise locations and take longer to navigate through the system, says Taylor. But for people who can’t call emergency services, the system provides a critical alternative.
Contact Anthony Macuk at 503-636-1281 ext. 108 or amacuk@lakeoswegoreview.