The Global Association for Contact Center Best Practices & Networking

November 24, 2010 -- If you've ever been caught in a situation where you needed to contact 911 with a text message; well, you've been out of luck. Until now, anyway.

"We are the first in the state to offer a text service to the 911 Emergency Center," said Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin. "Jeff (Presley, E911 Director) has been working on this with members of the administration for several months. The testing is completed, and we are now ready to roll out to the community."

According to Presley, this service was pioneered at sites in Florida and Iowa, and he began to pick up bits of information at a meeting he attended earlier in the year. He said, in essence, that 911 centers around the nation are working to catch up with the profusion of consumer devices that send and receive text data. "Just this week, the head of the FCC announced a nationwide initiative to bring all 911 centers into the 21st century with the ability to receive text messages," Presley said. "We look forward to the program they roll out, but we are to some degree already ahead of the curve with our system. We see no reason to wait."

Presley said that there are some very high profile disasters where citizens would have been better served if their call centers had the capacity to receive text messages. "For instance," Presley said, "during the April 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech that killed 32 people, students were trying to send text messages to 911. They did not realize that 911 call centers aren't equipped to receive text messages."

Presley said that communities in the United States have been using this same 911 system infrastructure since it was first incorporated in November of 1967. The only telephone company at the time, AT&T, along with the Federal Communications Commission, joined together to create the infamous three number code (911) over 30 years ago, it only recognized voice calls. "Clearly, society has outgrown communicating only via verbal means," Presley said. "This (voice only) system is simply outdated."

Another example Presley cited was Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2005. "All the cell phone towers were flooded out," Presley said, "There was no signal for holding a voice call. The only means of communication was via text messaging. However, the people trapped on roofs with rising water near, could not text message out to 911 for help because the call centers only recognized voice calls."

Perrin said that the local E911 Call Center is getting help from local sponsors, including Best Buy, East Arkansas Broadcasters (KIYS-FM / KFIN-FM) (Triple FM)as well as KAIT-TV to launch the first 911 text system in the state of Arkansas. "The new 911 text system will serve not only serve the citizen's of Jonesboro, but all of Craighead County," Perrin said. "We will be teaming with local TV and radio personalities to help promote and educate in the schools and to the general public about the new system."

Presley said the process is simple. Add the telephone number 870-882-0911 to your cell phone address book and save the ID as 911 TEXT.

"Imagine if your home was just broken into," Presley said. "You are able to run to your closet to hide with your cell phone in hand. So you have your phone with you. But you hear the intruder coming into your bedroom. You cannot call 911 because he will hear your voice. Instead, you text 911, for "HELP!", and within minutes emergency responders arrive. The GPS tracking technology allows us to pinpoint where the 911 text originated from in the phone."

Presley said that the emergency text technology could be used by anyone in a dangerous situation when talking is not an option. It could be used for the hearing impaired as well.

"It could be used by someone who is deaf and can't get to their [Telecommunication Device for the Deaf] machine," Presley said.

Presley also said that in the few markets that have already implemented the service that text messaging has already proven useful, including a few cases in which kidnapping victims have text-messaged family members for help, and then the family has called 911.

Presley does want to remind citizens, however, that texting the 911 Call Center is a secondary means of reporting an emergency. "Calling 911 is to be used if all possible," Presley said.

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.todaysthv.com

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